Date: 2017-04-14T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fiction; Thrillers; Technological; Thriller; War
Description: When the CIA uncovers a Chinese plot to invade America, technologist David Manning is thrust into action. But as he and an elite group of US experts plan for war, David discovers that not every person among them intends for America to win. David Manning's work is routine. He is a technologist. A researcher, working for In-Q-Tel, the CIA's private equity firm. David's job is to learn about new technology that might have applications beneficial to the US military and intelligence communities. It is an office job, with little excitement. Until the day he is taken from outside his Northern Virgini
Publisher: Point Whiskey Publishing

The War Planners

Andrew Watts

First edition 2014.

Copyright 2014 by Andrew Watts

All rights reserved.

Photo: POA(Phot) Owen King/MOD

CHAPTER 1

“In war, truth is the first casualty.”  -Aeschylus

Present Day

David Manning was kidnapped outside his Vienna, Virginia home on a Friday evening just after he drove home from work.

He had texted his wife to tell her that he was leaving, then he went to pick up their ritual Friday dinner.  Pizza night had become a favorite end of week routine for his family.  He turned on to I-66 heading west just as the glow of his cell phone lit up the inside of his car.  He swiped across the screen to answer, and his wife Lindsay’s voice came over the car’s speakers.

“Hi honey.” she said.

“Hey Lins.  How was your day?”

“Pretty good.  But now your daughter has decided that the dog is a pony.  She keeps chasing it around the house, and trying to ride it.  Apparently she picked it up from a TV show.”

“Uh-oh.  Maybe we should have gotten a bigger dog?”  David smiled, picturing his mischievous daughter and the unfortunate Jack Russell terrier.

“I’m looking forward to date night on the couch tonight.  I’ve got the movie all picked out.  It’s a chick flick. You’ve been travelling too much.  You owe me.”

“Anything you say, babe.”  He smiled to himself.

“Hi daddy!” came his daughter’s voice.

“Hey Maddie.  How’s it going?  Are you being good to the doggy?”

“Yeeesss.”

“Your mom said that you—”

Click.  His phone’s screen went red, signaling that the call had ended.

David smiled and shook his head.  No need to call back.  He would be home soon. David’s calls were often ended prematurely when his three-year-old daughter got the phone.  She loved that red button.  It was like the phone makers designed it to tempt kids to press.  Oh well.

David scrolled through his radio and landed on NPR.  They were replaying a news story that he had heard this morning on China beginning to unload much of the American debt that it owned.  China’s steel production had also slowed. U.S. markets were getting jittery.  They quoted the usual experts who gave their opinions on whether catastrophe was waiting around the corner.  David flipped the radio to the oldies channel.

Traffic was heavy. Rain began sprinkling the windshield, blurring the red taillights ahead.  I-66 was moving, but slowly.  After about twenty minutes of driving he took the Nutley exit towards Vienna.

Joe’s Pizza and Pasta was at the intersection of Nutley Street and Maple Avenue.  He pulled into the parking lot and walked inside.  The bustle of a Friday night in the suburbs sounded off.  Loud conversations drowned out soft rock.  Waitresses delivered plastic pitchers of soda and crushed ice.  Families stuffed their mouths with salad and hot slices of pepperoni and mozzarella.

The pizzeria employees knew David by sight.

“Hey, Mr. Manning! The usual, eh?” said the mustached man behind the register.  It looked like he had a young cousin next to him, learning the ropes.

David smiled said hello.  He was pretty sure that everyone who worked in the restaurant was related. He paid, took the two boxes, and then walked back out to the parking lot.  The bell on the door jingled as he left.  The cool fall rain was coming down heavier now.

As he got to his car, a black SUV sped past in the parking lot, splashing puddles in the pavement.  The man in the passenger seat gave him a funny look, like he was waiting on him.  David ignored it and placed the pizza boxes in the car. Some people were just impatient.

Driving home, the scent of garlic and oregano wafted through the air.  Those delicious smells tempted him, but David remained disciplined in his most solemn of marital pacts.  It was a well-documented fact that opening up the pizza box before arriving home would reduce the temperature of the pizza and raise the temperature of his Italian wife—and not in a good way.

A few minutes later, he parked his Toyota sedan on the curb outside of his house.  It was usually a busy Vienna neighborhood, filled with upper-middle class families walking their dogs and cooking out in their back yards.  Today, the rain had sent everyone inside.  David was starving.  He couldn’t wait to crack open a cold beer and take that first bite of steaming pizza.   But he never got to the front door.

He stepped out of the car, pizza boxes in hand, and felt tiny droplets of rain coming down on the back of his neck.

“David?”

The voice behind him sounded friendly.  Relaxed.  It had the casual tone of someone that could have been an old buddy from the past, or maybe a neighbor.  There was no reason to brace himself for what was to come.

He twisted around to see who was calling his name.  He never got a good look at the men.  It all happened too fast.

The already dark street went pitch black as a bag was yanked over his head.  The sound of his shoes skidding off the pavement was briefly audible as his feet went out from under him.  He heard a clap as the cardboard pizza boxes fall to the street.  He felt himself falling but never hit the ground.  Hands moved with the precision of years of training, grabbing him, holding him up, and wrapping whatever was over his head tight around his mouth so he couldn’t talk.  He was being mugged!  Panic filled him. He writhed and wrestled with every ounce of energy he could muster, but there were just too many strong hands.

They were carrying him now.  Disoriented and afraid, he no longer knew which way was up.  He tried to move as much as he could but the gripping hands had him in some sort of wrestling hold.  He tried to scream, but with the gag over his mouth, all that came out were pathetic, muffled attempts.

David fought to get out of the grip of those hands—how many he wasn’t sure.  He felt like they were all over his body.  A mix of feelings rushed through him: fear, anger, and the urge to urinate.  He felt violated.  He had no control now.  He kept trying to yell for help.

Had Lindsay seen him?  He was right outside their home.  If she happened to look out the window she could get help…

He felt his knees being bent, and his arms pulled together behind his back.  Before David knew it, he was hog-tied and tossed on something flat and metallic.  He landed with a loud and painful thud.  A metallic door slammed shut.  The ambient noises of the street grew dull.  He was pretty sure that he was inside a car trunk or the back of a van.

There were no voices.  No jingle of keys. A faint vibration told him that an engine was already running.  Then a jolt of motion shifted his body.  They were on the go.  Shit.

David had been kidnapped in the blink of an eye.  But there were no eyes that had seen it.  David was pretty sure that no one in his neighborhood had been outside in the rain.  Lindsay would be in the kitchen or the playroom, neither of which had a view of the street.  In those hapless few seconds, the safe and normal world that David had known came to an end.

The routine Friday night had turned into a night blinded in a cell.  He would have been sitting down with Lindsay and the girls right now.  Instead, David was left alone with his panic.  Rapid streams of thought flowed through his mind as his body jerked with each turn of the vehicle.  This wasn’t just a mugging. It was a kidnapping.  Who had taken him?  What could they possibly want?

His job.  It had to be his job.

David worked at In-Q-Tel.  It was a venture-capital firm unlike any other.  In-Q-Tel was a non-profit firm in Arlington, Virginia.  Its sole purpose was to invest in and secure the most advanced information technology for use by the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies.  His job was to identify and evaluate these new technologies that could be acquired and used by the government.

The people who had taken him must want information on something he’d worked on.  Some technology.  David jumped from project to project every few months. He had worked there for a number of years now.  They could be after information on any number of dozens of highly classified projects.

David tried to think.  They had spoken his name in English.  He tried to remember if there was an accent.  He didn’t think so.  If they were terrorists, would they have an accent?  David was way out of his league.  He had been in the Navy for a while.  But he had been an officer for only a few months before being let go due to a combination of bad eyesight and budget cuts.  He had never deployed or done anything really exciting.  His current job was equally mundane.  It sounded a lot more interesting than it really was.  He spent his first few years out of the Navy working for In-Q-Tel as a low-level tech researcher.  His recent promotion meant that he traveled more and got to work on the higher priority projects.  But it was still research.  David got all of his information about terrorists and spies from books, TV, and the occasional NPR story.  If he had to guess, these guys were probably from a foreign government.

Would the Russians do something like this?  Or the Iranians?  Would they have spies that had good enough language skills that they wouldn’t have any accent?  Would either of those countries take a risk like that?  It wasn’t like David could build them the technology.  He just knew about the applications: how a voice-recognition software could identify a particular bad guy, or how a new type of computer virus could beat the protection software.  Who would want that information badly enough to capture a U.S. employee on American soil?  Weren’t they stealing it all through cyber warfare anyway?  The United States wouldn’t stand for this.  He had to calm down.  The government would find him.  Rescue him.  Right?

But no one had seen him.  Maybe the government would never find out.  God, he hoped he wasn’t going to die.  Death may or may not be imminent.  He didn’t know.  But being tied up and blindfolded in the back of a car like this certainly didn’t bode well for his health.  David thought about his loved ones.  He tried to remember his last interaction with each of them.

He remembered telling his wife, Lindsay, that he loved her when he left for work that morning.  He had kissed her on the cheek as she nursed their youngest daughter, Taylor.  Her eyes were half closed as she sat in the rocking chair, but she had smiled.  David travelled often now.  Lindsay held the house together.  She practically raised the kids herself.  She was the perfect companion.  He owed her everything, and loved her more every day, if that was possible.

He had kissed his oldest daughter Maddie on the cheek as she slept in her bed.  Was that the last time he would see them?  If he had known, he would have told his wife a thousand times how much he loved her.  He never would have let go of his daughters. They were the best part of life.  He couldn’t bear the thought of losing them.

David tried to think of the last time he visited his mother.  It was a year earlier, in the large waterfront home his parents had owned near Annapolis, Maryland.  David tried to remember the last thing he had said to her but couldn’t.  It was probably about his work.  She was always telling him that he worked too hard and too long, and that the government couldn’t keep pushing people like that.  That Mrs. Green’s son from church had a government job and he was home every day at 4 p.m. and never had to travel.  He hoped he hadn’t been condescending in his response.  She only said those things because she cared for him.  If she were still around, she would be devastated if he was hurt—or worse.  A Navy wife for more than 35 years, she had been tough as nails and dedicated to her three children.  She had practically raised them on her own with their father gone so much.  He wished she had still been around when Taylor was born.  It would have been nice to let her see one more crying grandchild.  A slice of heaven for a dying grandmother.  But hardship and sacrifice was the way of life in a military family like the Mannings.

When your father was an Admiral, it was expected that each child would  serve, go to sea, and give up the comforts of civilian life.  The other two siblings were certainly fulfilling this obligation.  His sister, Victoria, was a rising-star helicopter pilot living in Jacksonville, Florida.  Their brother, Chase, had been a SEAL, and now continued that type of work for lesser-known government entities.  Aside from the occasional holiday, David hadn’t seen much of his father or siblings over the past decade.  Being in the military after 9/11 meant a lifestyle of long and frequent deployments. As the commander of the Navy’s newest carrier strike group, this was likely Admiral Manning’s last time at sea.  David was the only one who hadn’t turned military service into a career.

David thought about his family and realized that the last time he had seen the three of them was at his mother’s funeral.  She died a little over a year ago now. It was a cruel irony that a woman who had loved others so deeply would die of heart failure at the young age of 61.  David had thought about her every day since then, and it had taken over a month for those thoughts to stop drawing tears.  While his siblings used to tease him that he was her favorite, he didn’t care.  They had a special bond, even for a mother and son.

Her passing had the strange effect of transforming David into a late-blooming athlete. He was by far the least physically gifted of the three siblings.  While the other two had been athletic superstars, David was the bookworm.  With his mother’s death, though, he needed an outlet; something that would provide both meditation and a distraction.  Chase used running as his getaway from the world—always had.  David hoped it could work for him to0.  And that was how, the day after their mother’s funeral, David found himself in a 7-mile run with his brother on the Washington & Old Dominion Trail. David was limping for the next week.  But it was the spark that started the flame.  Eventually he registered for a 5K by himself.  5K’s turned into a half-marathon.  In an email exchange with his brother, Chase had suggested he add swimming to his routine.  Now David was training for a full triathlon.  What had started as a sort of therapy quickly became a healthy obsession.

Chase.  Where was he when you needed him?  He had been a ghost ever since he joined The Teams.  That was almost a decade ago.  David had seen him on a sprinkle of holidays over the years.  But nothing like the close relationship they once had. The three siblings were a military fa—

The car came to a sudden halt, followed by the sound of doors opening and shutting. There was an anxious hotness in his chest that he thought could be the start to a panic attack, although he had never had one so he wasn’t sure. Would they hurt him?

He could hear men talking—in English.  The sound of a jet engine spooling up told him that they were at an airport.  Not good.  This could only get worse if they got him outside of the country.

David heard the trunk open and felt a rush of cool air.  Then the hands grabbed him again.  It was more than two people.  Not a fair fight even if he had use of his arms and legs. Tied up, his chances were precisely zero.  They moved him swiftly.  David gave up struggling.  There was no point.  He felt cowardly for not fighting.  He tried to justify it in his mind.  He told himself that he was saving up his strength but deep down he knew it was just reality setting in.  David had completely lost control of the situation.

It felt like there were zip ties around his legs, feet, and hands.  He barely had the ability to move and was almost certain that the loss of circulation had made his limbs fall asleep.  God, he had to pee.  The fear made it worse.  If they didn’t untie him he was just going to go.  What was there to lose?  Now they were lifting and pushing him up.  The loud sound of the jet engine indicated that they were likely putting him on a plane.  He was going to get thrown into a dark prison cell and be tortured by someone that barely spoke English.  He had seen enough on TV to know how it went.

They set him down gently enough on what felt like a cushioned surface.

A voice said, “We ready to go?”

“Yes sir.  We’ll be airborne in five.”

“Roger.  Thanks gents that will be all.”  Footsteps down a metal ladder.

The jet engine noise faded and then a hiss as the cabin door must have been closed.  He heard a higher-pitched whine and felt the rumble of the aircraft as it taxied out.  He was pretty sure that there was at least one person nearby.  He could sense it.

“Hang in there, David.  We’ll untie you in a minute.  Sorry about this.  It is not ideal.  Relax.  We’re not going to hurt you.”

A rush of relief and maddening curiosity flooded him.  He fought back tears as he thought once again about his family.  He thought about trying to talk but again it felt useless.  Just wait.  Wait.  Wait.  He knew that voice.  Who was that?  It was…Tom.  It was Tom Connolly, one of the senior managers at David’s work.  David didn’t work directly for him, but they had been in meetings together.  What the hell was he doing here?

Someone tore off the duct tape and lifted off David’s mask.  He looked up at Tom and two others, sitting in the luxurious cabin of the Gulfstream G-V.  Tom wore a wrinkled suit and a tired face.  There was one other man who had on black tactical gear and was about the size of an NFL linebacker.  The third person was a short, round woman that looked to be in her early forties.  She had fading highlights in her hair and a very odd smile on her face considering the situation.  It was a sheepish look, like she was hoping that David wasn’t going to be mad at her.

David coughed and sucked in deep lungfuls of air.  He was lying on a cream leather couch that ran along the plane’s cabin wall.  The two men sat across the narrow aisle, facing him.  The woman sat one seat forward of them, watching.

“What the Hell is this, Tom?”  David asked, looking back and forth between them.

As he spoke, he heard the engines roar.  They were all pushed backward as the aircraft took off and rotated upwards into the night sky.  They were airborne.  This was all happening too fast.

David was still on the couch, and the big guy was holding him as the aircraft angled up into the sky, making sure that David didn’t slide down and fall off.  Tom leaned over and yelled above the noise of the engines.  “I’m sorry Dave!  This was the best way to do this!  We had to make you disappear!  Hey, promise me you aren’t going to cause a scene, and we’ll untie you and I’ll explain everything.  Can you promise me that?  Like I said, we are not going to hurt you.  We’re on the same team.”

David was confused, but nodded vigorously.

Tom turned to the big guy next to him and motioned towards David.  The man flicked open a pocketknife and hunched over David’s body.  With one hand he held down his limbs, pressing a good portion of his easily 230-pound frame into David so he couldn’t move.  A few quick slices cut open the zip ties, and then the man stepped back, watching to see David’s reaction.

Even if he had wanted to, David could barely move.  He rubbed his sore wrists where the zip ties had left deep red marks on his skin.  His legs were tingling and sore.  He lay on the couch, propping himself up by his elbows.  His ears popped as the aircraft gained altitude, and his body lurched in the turns.  David repositioned himself to sit upright.  The loud noise from the jet’s takeoff had subsided, and the three men sat staring each other down in the spacious cabin.

Tom said, “Are you alright?”

David nodded.  He kept his guard up.  He didn’t know what to do or say.  He still wasn’t sure if his life was in danger.  David didn’t know Tom too well, but he knew his reputation.  Jerk was the single most-used description.  He was supposed to be one of those guys that thought he was smarter than everyone else in the room, regardless of his expertise on the subject at hand.  The result was that he tended to treat people like they were idiots.  In an organization full of smart people, he was not loved.  David had worked with him a handful of times, and each time he had used that condescending tone like the engineers and analysts were wasting his time.  But he never had any reason to fear or distrust Tom.  Until today.

Tom said, “You hungry?  Thirsty?”

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

Tom snorted.  “Sure.  It’s down in the back.  I’ll explain everything when you get back.  Go.”

David got up, rubbing his sore joints and limbs.  He hobbled past the woman to the back of the plane, with Tom’s assistant in tow.

“Leave the door open,” said the henchman.

David didn’t acknowledge him.  The command pissed him off.  Apparently they weren’t totally on the same team.  But he still wasn’t sure what was going on, and didn’t want to risk any sort of physical punishment to a disobeyed order.  He urinated and washed his hands, then splashed some water on his face.  He headed back to sit in the seat across from Tom.  His body sank into the plush leather chair.

Tom was on the white phone connected to the seat.  He had a grim look.

The woman held out her hand and said, “Hi, I’m Brooke Walters.”  She gave him a polite smile.

David didn’t know what to say.  He held out a limp hand and looked at her like she was a mad woman.

“David Manning.”  He said.

Tom spoke over them on the phone.  He said, “So it’s confirmed?  He’s gone?  Okay.  Understood.  Yes, we’re airborne.  Walters and one from In-Q-Tel.  No.  We had to go with someone else. Manning. Yes, I’ll explain later.  Yes.  That’s everyone on the list.  Yes.  Yes.  Okay.  I’ll talk to you then.”   He hung up the phone and looked over at David, letting out a deep sigh.

David closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself.  He then looked directly at Tom, and asked, “Tom, what just happened?”

Tom tilted his head and stared back at him.  David could smell stale tobacco on his breath.  There was an opened pack of Marlboro reds on the table.

Tom said, “We kidnapped you.  Sorry about that.  It had to be done.”

The woman seemed to shrink into her seat.

David said, “I realize that.  Why?  What reason could you possibly have?”

Tom stared up at him, his face shifting into a tired frown.  He glanced at the big guy and said, “Can you give us a minute?”

The henchman nodded, went to the back of the plane, and sat down.  Tom waited until he was out of earshot before speaking.  He took out a paper folder and read through some of the papers.

“Says here you’re an Annapolis guy.  Just like your dad.  And your brother and sister went there too.  Wow.  I see they were big athletes while they were there.  And you did…sailing.  Ladies must have gone crazy when you told `em that, huh?  Still, that’s quite the Naval Academy legacy, huh?”  David found it surprising that Tom had worked in the same office for the past couple of years and knew nothing about him.  It fit with his reputation as being completely self-involved.

“What is that you’re reading from?”

“Your file.”

“My file?”

“So your dad was an Admiral?”

“Is an Admiral.  Could you please tell me what this is all about?”

Tom raised his eyebrows and said, “And your brother was a SEAL…and now he works for… Oh, I hadn’t seen this yet.  He works for us?”

David replied, “No, he does not work for In-Q-Tel.”

The woman laughed.  Tom looked up from the file and smiled.

Tom said, “In-Q-Tel.  Right.  Dave, let’s get a few things straight.  I am not employed by In-Q-Tel.  Not really.  It is a more of a part-time deal for me.  My real employer is the same organization that indirectly pays the bills at In-Q-Tel.  The Central Intelligence Agency.  I specialize in counter-espionage.”

David frowned and said, “What are you talking about?”

Tom ignored him and said, “This situation all started a few weeks ago.  We have uncovered some very disturbing bits of information.  I’d heard rumors of course, but until you hear it from a reliable source, you tend to discount those as conspiracy theories.  Rumors like that…just seem too crazy to believe.”

Tom looked lost in thought for a moment, and then looked David directly in the eye.  “A penetration of that scope…and at those high levels.  It’s unthinkable.”  He sighed.  “But it looks like it’s happened.  And the same source that tipped us off on that told us something much worse.”  He looked down at the file again.  “Now, we’ve got a long flight ahead of us.  I promise I’ll answer your questions.  But I only recently found out I’d be taking you on this little vacation, so humor me for a few minutes while I peruse your biography.”

David didn’t know what to say.  He still had adrenaline pumping through his veins, and felt angry at Tom’s attitude.  Still, something told him to calm down and try to be patient.

He said, “Tom.  Look…if this is some national security breach on a project or something, I’ll cooperate with whatever you need.  I still don’t understand how kidnapping me from my home could possibly be appropriate or necessary.  Why the hell would you take me like this?  And what do I have to do with whatever is going on?”

Tom ignored him.

“Your sister’s a Navy pilot huh?  Hmm.  Some family.  And you…failed out of flight school.  Huh.  I guess you were the black sheep?  That must have been a hell of a conversation with old dad.”  He looked up briefly.  Enough time to see the flash of anger in David’s eyes.

“I didn’t fail out of flight school.  It was a medical disqualification.  Bad eyesight.”

Tom waved off what he was saying like it wasn’t important.  David decided that the jerk personality wasn’t some CIA cover.  That part was genuine.

He said, “So then you got a job with In-Q-Tel as an analyst in `08, and have been with the company ever since.  Your current project is ARES, correct?”

David looked at the woman and then back at Tom.

Tom saw his hesitation and said, “Relax, she’s cleared.  She’s NSA.”

David looked at her in surprise.  She smiled cheerfully.  David said, “Why should I trust anything you say to me after what I just went through?”

The air phone next to Tom rang.  He ignored David’s question and answered the phone.

“Connolly here, go.”

David turned to Brooke and whispered, “Okay, can you tell me what’s going on?”

She said, “Sure can.  First, I just want to say how sorry I am about how they took you.  I had nothing to do with that.  I just found out about all of this yesterday—“

Tom hung up the phone and got up, walking to the front of the plane.  Brooke and David watched as he opened the door to the cockpit, spoke to the pilots, then walked back and sat down.  The plane banked to the right and David felt his stomach flutter.  Whatever Tom had said, it seemed like the pilots had made some course corrections.

David said, “Changing our destination?”

Tom said, “We didn’t really have a destination prior to takeoff.  The pilots had to file in flight.  We’re good now.  We’ll be in California in six hours.”

Had they really just taken off without knowing where they were going?  What kind of mess was David in?

David said, “Alright.  I’m all ears.”

Tom’s voice was gruff.  He said, “We lost someone.  Actually, I just confirmed that on the phone a few minutes ago.  He had been missing for about a week.  But now it seems they’ve identified the body.  An agent stationed in China.  He was the one who sent us the warning a few weeks ago.  Stumbled on to something big.  Bigger than any of us imagined.  Turns out all those rumors had some legs.”

“I’m sorry about the agent.  What rumors?”

Tom said, “Dave, how much have you been following the news about China’s economy?”

David said, “I mean, I’ve seen the news.  It’s tanking, right?  Our stock market is getting pretty bad too.”

“Right.  The stock markets are tanking.  But more important than that is that China’s unemployment is starting to rise.  And their median income is starting to drop.  What you probably haven’t seen on the news is that there have been several workers strikes.  And some protests.  The government over there is putting the kibosh on that for now.  They’re good at censorship.  But sooner or later, 60 Minutes or CNN will pick it up.”

“Got it.  I’m still not following how this gets me on this airplane and probably scares the hell out of my wife when I don’t show up tonight.”

Tom replied, “David, we have reason to believe that China is planning to invade the United States.  There are leaders in their government that have set plans in motion.  Our agent was there to investigate some inner circle that was supposed to deal with the ‘economic problem.’  We thought it was going to be more censorship or maybe some sort of monetary policy that pisses off the Fed.  Were we ever wrong.”

David just sat there, numb and confused.  He had been kidnapped, thrown into a trunk, and then put on a jet going to God-knows-where.  Now he was being told that World War Three was going to start.

“This inner circle of Chinese leaders came up with a solution alright.  Now here’s what you need to know.  Why you’re here.  There’s a fire on the horizon.  Me and a few of my colleagues are trying to fight this fire.  We’re either going to prevent it or have to put it out when it reaches us.  Either way, you’re going to be part of a group that will contribute.  I’m taking you to a place that you’ll be able to help us prepare our defense. We were going to use someone else but there was a conflict at the last minute.  That complicated telling you ahead of time.  Plus, there is a good chance I’m being watched.  Had to jump through hoops to get on this plane.  No one could know that you were going to be going on this trip.  No one can know that this trip exists.  Because of these reasons, I had to kidnap you tonight.  To keep it secret.  And that is about as simple as I can make it.”

David stared back at Tom, guarding his emotions.  He didn’t know what to feel.  Anger.  Distrust.  He tended to have trust issues after kidnappings.  He tried to stay as calm as possible.  His sense of duty was making its way into his mix of emotions.  A million things ran through his head, but one was at the top.

David said, “What about my family, Tom?”

“I’ll talk to them.  You’re going to be gone a little while.  I’ll make sure they know you’re OK.”

“Christ, my wife is going to kill me, I didn’t....”

“Alright, hold on.  Now you listen to me, David.  Listen very carefully.  The reason you are here is more important than getting put in the doghouse by your wife.  Get that through your head up front.  This is top-level, national security shit.  I need you to understand that.  I need you to put your country first, and to quit bitching about the way it had to start.  I said I’m sorry.  But honestly, I don’t really give a shit about the inconvenience it caused you or how you probably pissed your pants when they gagged you.  To be quite honest, I’ve got bigger things to worry about.  The bottom line is, we needed you and we had to do it this way.”

David fell silent as his face flushed.  They sat, not speaking, for a moment.  The only sound was the thrum of the engines.  Brooke stared, interested in the drama, but trying not to appear so.

Finally, David asked, “Where are we headed?  California?”

Tom smiled in a way that made David uneasy.  “At first.  Yes.  After that, I wish I could tell you, pal.”

He studied Tom for a few seconds before saying, “How long will I be gone?”

“A couple weeks.”

David rolled his eyes.

“Don’t look so upset buddy—like I said, I’ll give your wife a call for you.  I’ll make up an excuse.  You won’t be able to call her yourself.  I can tell you that we’re headed to a small airport on the west coast.  From there, you’ll get on another jet with other members of your team.  I won’t be going.  Got other fish to fry.  I don’t even know where that flight is headed. Due to the sensitive nature of this mission, we’ve kept a lot of info compartmentalized.  But when you arrive they’ll give you a brief, which will help explain everything.  Just know that this is a vital project that will immensely help our nation’s security.  And there is a specific need for someone with your background.”

“What background is that?”

“You’ll be perfect.  Your knowledge of the Navy should even help.  But mostly…your knowledge of ARES.”

“What does this have to do with ARES?”

ARES was the codename for a cyber-weapon that David had researched a little over two months ago.  The NSA was enormously interested, and David had been sent out to evaluate and secure the technology for the US government.

“You’ll find out when you get there.  Plan to discuss it.  You know it better than anyone besides those MIT kids who created it.  From my understanding, many of the people that will be going will have different pieces of the puzzle.  The group that has put this little shindig together knows enough to realize the danger, but we need to get you all in a room together to really make sense of it.  And that can’t be done easily; too many possible eavesdroppers to worry about.  Hence the remote location.”

David glanced out the window.  He could see the setting sun painting the tops of the clouds orange on the western horizon.  He sipped his coffee and tried to make sense of it all.  He wasn’t sure what to believe and couldn’t think straight.  He was still too worked up from what had just happened.  He was worried about his wife and how she would react to his being gone for three weeks without any phone calls.  Hell, she would probably be a wreck after he didn’t show up tonight.

“You’ll call my wife soon?”

Tom nodded.  “Scout’s honor.”

“Tom, I gotta be honest with you, this is all a little too insane.  Is there anything else you can tell me about what I’ll be doing?”

Tom said, “I’ve seen some of the evidence. The threat is real.  There’s already one CIA agent that sacrificed his life to get the word out.  In light of the Chinese spy ring, finding people that we can trust has proven to be quite challenging.  Even deciding on a secure location was a challenge.  But here is what I can tell you.  You guys are going to come up with plans that could help stop this war.  There is a woman there running things.  She’s very high up in the intel-world.  She’s excellent, and right at the heart of all of this.  Give her whatever she asks for.  You have full authority to talk about any of the things you’ve worked on in the past.  That’s why you were chosen.”

David was processing, shaking his head.   “Why would China go to war with the United States?”

Tom replied, “Can’t say for sure.  The Chinese didn’t bother to tell me.”

Brooke finally spoke up, “Why does any country go to war?  National security, land, economics, religion, politics.”

Tom said, “Times are a changing in China.  My personal opinion?  Decisions for war always come down to what is in the best interests of the powerful few.  The people in charge get scared that they will lose their throne.  So they act.  Powerful people like these ones we’ve been looking into don’t have the same inhibitions we little folk do.  For them, every option is on the table.  Even war.”

“So what will I be doing when we get to wherever we are going?”

Tom said, “It’s called a Red Cell.  You’ll help to plan out what they might do to us so that we can be ready.  That’s really as much as I can tell you.  Probably more than I should.”

David nodded.  “I see.”  He wasn’t totally sure that he did.  But he was starting to.

Tom asked, “Dave, can I count on you?  I know this sounds cheesy, but your country needs you.  I mean it.”

He hated it when people called him Dave.  “Yeah, Tom...of course.”

Tom looked at his watch.  “I need to get some sleep.  It’s been a long few days.  You hungry?”

Tom motioned the big guy that he could come back and sit down near them.  Big Guy brought a cooler over and passed out submarine sandwiches and sodas.  David took a turkey and ham sub and a diet cola.  He took one bite of the sandwich and left the rest.  He wasn’t hungry.  The bumpy plane didn’t help.  This still didn’t feel right.  But if all of this was true, then of course he was going to do everything he could to help his country.

China.  More than a billion people.  The only military in the world that compared to the United States.  It was the doomsday scenario that his instructors talked about when he was back at the Naval Academy.  David had once heard that if it ever came to war with China, every response plan that the United States had involved using tactical nuclear weapons.  It was simple math.  There were just too many Chinese.

If this were really happening, would the Navy call him back up?  He was only an active duty officer for a few months.  About as long as it took the medical staff at Navy flight school to figure out that his eyes had gone bad.  However, once you are commissioned, you’re commissioned for life, right?  So was he going to be sitting on a boat a year from now, facing an onslaught of Chinese anti-ship missiles racing toward him?  It was too incredible to seem real, and too distant to inspire the fear that seemed appropriate.  He was more concerned about his wife being worried about her husband’s disappearance.

David still didn’t fully trust Tom after the kidnapping.  But if this were all true, then this time in history could be like the days before Pearl Harbor.  Or perhaps like the days before Germany invaded Poland.  Much of the world was just going about its everyday routine, unaware of the massive conflict that was about to erupt.

Over 60 million people died in World War Two, or over 3% of the world’s population.  If a war of that scale were really on the horizon, David must do his part to prevent or win it.

David was exhausted from the earlier drama.  He turned and looked at the other two men, both of whom were now sleeping in their fully reclined seats. Well, they likely wouldn’t be sleeping with him unrestrained if they meant to do him harm.  He still wasn’t sure that he wanted to sleep himself.  Or that he even could.  But he sure was tired.

Brooke came around and sat in the empty seat across from him.  She smiled and raised her eyebrows like she wanted to talk.

She said, “How are you doing?”

“Well, I just got kidnapped from my home and now I’m being flown to God-knows-where on some sort of CIA plane to help save the country from World War Three.  I’m good.  How are you?”

“It’s good to have a sense of humor about it.”

“I suppose.”

“I just found out about twenty-four hours ago.  My boss made me meet him off the grounds of Ft. Meade.  He introduced me to Tom and gave me the quick and dirty.  I can’t believe it either.  I work in signals intelligence.  To be completely honest, I spy on the Chinese for a living.  Used to be on the Iran team.  Now I’m on China.  I work in cyber operations.  We hack into their computers.  They hack into ours.  It’s like the cold war all over again but over the Internet.  But just like the cold war, there are rules.  Over the past couple of weeks though, I’ve noticed a few things that were very unusual.  Some of the rules were being broken.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, like this CIA guy that they killed.  Tom didn’t tell you what he was looking for.  It was part of an op that I was working.  Have you ever heard of the CCDI?”

“No.”

“It’s the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.  A Chinese organization that is supposed to root out corruption in their government.  A few months ago, it got a new boss.  A guy by the name of Jinshan.  Cheng Jinshan.  Heard of him?”

“Uh, no.”

She laughed.  “Sorry, of course you haven’t.  Sometimes I forget that everyone doesn’t spend all day studying obscure Chinese businessmen and politicians.  Well, this guy Jinshan is well-connected.  He’s a very successful entrepreneur, but also was rumored to be tapped into the Chinese cyber warfare units with some of his Internet companies.  We knew he was working closely with the government agency that heads up their internet censorship program.  Turns out, he’s more than tapped into the government’s cyber warfare.  He practically runs China’s cyber warfare.  This guy has been interwoven into their operations from the beginning. Anyway, Jinshan is put in charge of the CCDI, a position that is almost always given to a politician.  But this time the Chinese President himself picks Jinshan, a businessman.  So the Chinese President has been using Jinshan and the CCDI to whittle away at the government’s leadership and shape it the way he wants.  It’s Tyrant 101; clean house of all who could oppose you. Well, naturally we started hacking into Jinshan’s files and computers more closely.  Turns out he really is a much bigger fish than we thought.  He had his hands in everything.  He rubs elbows with their highest-ranking military brass and has played golf with several members of their politburo.  Some people think he might even be responsible for getting the current Chinese president in office.  So we started an operation to monitor him more closely.  The CIA agent that was killed was our man on the ground.  But I had no idea what he had uncovered until yesterday when Tom read me in.”

David said, “So what does Jinshan have to do with a Chinese attack on the U.S.?”

“I don’t know exactly.  I just know that our ground asset had started getting close to people in the CCDI.  He began to realize that the whole point of that organization, which is supposed to be about stopping corruption, was now to fill key government leadership roles with people who were handpicked by Jinshan.  I told you that before Jinshan got tapped for the CCDI leadership role, we didn’t have too much on him.  Well, that isn’t true for the people he was picking to fill different political leadership roles.  They are stacking the deck with politicians that are or have been closely aligned to the military or intelligence services.  It’s like they’re militarizing all government posts over there.  The CIA agent was supposed to get into some secure hard drive that would give us more info on their strategy and end game.  That is where he must have gotten the info Tom shared earlier.  Someone must have been onto him though…”

“Shit.  This reminds me of the Soviet Union.”

“Well, they are Communists too, you know.”

“Right.  So who else at the NSA knows about what Tom told us?  About China having a ton of spies in the US, and about the invasion?”

“My boss was working with Tom and some others in the CIA.  But at the NSA, it was just my boss and me.  We compartmentalize information like crazy.  Thank goodness we do.  If there really are sleepers in the NSA, we wouldn’t want this to get out. We wouldn’t want them to know that we know.  With any luck, we still might be able to get out ahead of this thing.”

Brooke and David talked for another hour. She was a local Maryland girl, had gone to UMBC, and excelled in mathematics and computer science.  She had interned at the NSA while in college and worked there for the past 15 years.

Eventually, David politely hinted that he needed a nap.  He got the impression that she would talk the entire flight if he let her.  But they ended their conversation and David found himself alone looking out the oval window into the vast evening sky.

David kept thinking about his family.  He was worried about the short-term and how his wife would react to his being missing.  And he was worried about the long term—about how their lives might change if America really was thrust into a war of this scale.

Could this really be true?  He kept asking himself that question.  It was all just too hard to believe.  What was the saying?  The simplest explanation was usually correct.  The problem in this situation was that there didn’t appear to be any simple explanations.

The answer to the truth question had a significant implication.  He had a choice here.  David could go or stay.  Tom didn’t say that he had a choice, but David could try to escape when they landed if he really felt this wasn’t safe or legitimate.

He decided he would go.  David would get on the next plane.  He committed.  Cautiously, but firmly.  For now, David chose to believe that Tom was being truthful.  After all, no one in the CIA ever told a lie.  Talking to Brooke helped.  After the first five minutes of speaking to her, David instantly liked and trusted her.  And she was smart.  If he had learned anything from his days at the Naval Academy, it was to follow smart people.  It almost never failed.  Almost.

David leaned against the hard plastic of the plane window.  One thought led to another.  If China truly was planning an invasion, then David felt a patriotic obligation to help.  If this so-called Red Cell was what help looked like, he would work hard to contribute.

He saw a pen and paper on the table and decided to write his wife a note.  He wrote what he thought he could say.  Mostly he just wanted to let her know that he was okay.  He put in a few details to let her know that it was really him.  Then he leaned back into the window and shut his eyes.  Sleep was not quick to come.  The cold window pressed up against his forehead, and his mind began to drift to thoughts of what a war with China would really be like, and what kind of world his daughters might grow up in.

*****

David awoke to a firm shake of his shoulder.  It was the big guy in tactical gear.

“We’re here.  Time to go. ”

He looked up, dazed and still sleepy.  “Okay.  Where is here?”

“Let’s go.” replied Big Guy.

The plane was shut down.  David hadn’t intended on sleeping but eventually the fatigue got to him.  He had slept through the landing.  The note.  He grabbed it off the table, got up and walked out the open door of the plane.

An empty twilight sky cast grey and purple hues over a silent runway.  There were two identical planes parked next to each other.  Other than that, the airport seemed deserted.  The faint runway lights were the only man-made illumination.

Tom walked around the nose of the plane and handed David a large black duffel bag.  “Here.  It’s clothes and toiletries.  Not your own, but they should fit.  You’ll get your phone and wallet back when you return.  Sorry about the inconvenience.”

Suddenly David realized that there were voices coming from the other plane.  He ducked under the fuselage to see a similar-looking private jet that had people getting on.

“Who are they?”  David asked.

“A few of the other consultants.  That’s what we’re calling you guys.  Consultants.  You’ll meet them on the plane.” said Tom.  “We’ve got to go.  Like I said, I’ll tell your wife you’re okay, and don’t worry about work.  It’ll be there when you get back.”

He grinned, but the wrinkles stopped at his eyes.  David didn’t have a good feeling about this.

David handed him the note and said, “Here.  Please deliver this to my wife.”

Tom looked down at the paper note.  He nodded and said, “Of course.  Sure thing.”

“Mr. Manning?” called a voice.  David looked over and saw a guy in a silly-looking airline uniform, his cap half cocked to the side.

“That’s me.”

“Right this way, sir.”

Tom waved and said, “Good luck.  Remember, this may be one of the most important things you ever do.  So do your best and don’t screw it up.”

David frowned at that.  Hell of a pep talk.  He walked over to the other plane, still unsure whether this was the best decision. David took a deep breath and walked up the ladder and into the aircraft.

*****

A few minutes later, Tom and his assistant stood on the flight line, and watched as David’s jet disappeared to the west.  Tom closed his eyes and took a long drag from his cigarette.  No turning back now.

The man in tactical gear said, “Are you really going to call his wife?”

Tom glanced at him.  This guy was such an idiot.  Where did his company get its goons?  He was barely a step up from the henchmen on the Sopranos.

“No.” Tom replied.

There is no need.  They’ll never see each other again.

Tom said, “Come on.  Let’s get in the plane.  We’ve got work to do.”  He flicked the smoldering cigarette onto the tarmac and headed up the stairs of the jet.

CHAPTER 2

“Our historic dominance that most of us in this room have enjoyed is diminishing…China is going to rise, we all know that. [But] how are they behaving? That is really the question…”  - Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, US Navy, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, January 2014

The plane ride was long and uncomfortable.  David’s face was covered with day-old stubble, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot from the lack of sleep.  He also needed a shower.  Badly.  While the seats on the jet had the same luxury cushions as the first aircraft, there is nothing in the world that can make a nine-hour plane ride comfortable.

As soon as they had gotten in the aircraft, a male “flight attendant,” who David was pretty sure held no formal position with an airline, had given them each 20-page briefs to read.  He also provided them food and drinks.   Other than that, the man didn’t speak for the duration of the trip.

David rather liked the two other passengers he met on the plane.  Each of them was going to participate in the same capacity as David.  Brooke and he found that they were the best-informed of the group.  All the other two had been told was that they were to be consultants on a national-security project.

Bill Stanley was a defense contractor who lived in Nevada.  He had retired from the Air Force more than a decade ago, and had a wife and two grown boys.  He worked on drones and “a few jets that you wouldn’t believe existed if I told you.”  David learned that Bill commuted to work every day on a US Air Force Boeing 767.  He would drive to Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport, then fly to what was once known as Area 51.  They joked about UFO’s and aliens, and then realized that nothing was very funny now that World War Three may be on the horizon. Bill spent most of his time working on the long-range satellite communications to and from high-tech US military aircraft and drones.

Henry Glickstein was a self-proclaimed “maker” and telecommunications guru who had worked for several of the big-tech companies.  The entire time they spoke, he never stopped smiling or walking around the plane’s cabin inspecting every element.  He had designed data farms and overseen the layout of fiber optic networks for a living, and gave David the impression that he was a workaholic; an engineer who couldn’t stop trying to solve whatever problem lay in front of him.  He was a jokester, but a competent and driven one.  It was like his mind was moving so fast that he had to throw in a few one-liners every so often so he didn’t get bored.

They were each astonished to hear David’s story of being kidnapped.  Their invitations were markedly different.  As with Brooke, a single person in their chain of command had contacted the two men just 24 hours earlier.  They each had been sold on the importance of the mysterious project.  They each had been told not to discuss it with anyone, and to pack for several weeks.

They hadn’t understood why the secrecy was so important, but all of them had complied with the request.  David had been surprised that they all went so willingly, without knowing more. Each of the three had trusted the manager who had approached them.  And they felt a sense of duty to participate in what was deemed a crucial project.  The two men hadn’t known about the connection to a possible Chinese invasion.

David and Brooke told them.  They were floored.  Most of the plane ride was spent talking about different scenarios for why China would do something like this.  The more David thought about it, the more he realized how hard it was going to be for Americans to believe something like this could really happen.  Americans were comfortable.  Human beings were reactive, not proactive, when they were comfortable.  It was hard to get people to prepare for a hurricane if they hadn’t been hit in recent years.  And that’s exactly what this was: an approaching storm of monumental proportions.  A world war hadn’t happened in David’s lifetime.  Would people prepare for the storm?  Or would they watch the news reports from their couches in disbelief, waiting for a resolution?

The briefs the flight attendant handed out gave them little new information.  They were to be consultants to the US government in a Red Cell.  According to the document, Red Cells were used by the CIA to “think outside the box about a full range of relevant analytic issues." Whatever that meant.  Each consultant was to provide the team with insights and critical knowledge from their individual area of expertise.  When the group finished reading, they had more questions than answers.   The second half of the flight once again was used for sleeping.

When they landed, it was late afternoon at their destination.  David wondered how many time zones they had passed.  The door to the jet opened and revealed bright blue skies and an inrush of thick, tropical air.

The group’s tired eyes were wide as they looked around at their landing spot.  There was ocean everywhere.  It reminded David of one of those old World War Two island air bases built in the middle of the Pacific.  It was tiny, as islands go—or air bases, for that matter.  They could only see about half of the island before it curved around into the sea.  The runway looked like it barely fit, surrounded by dark black sandy beaches and turquoise waters on three sides.  On the other side of the runway was a set of four concrete structures that were separated from tropical rainforest by a tall barbed-wire fence.  The dense green vegetation rose higher and higher up along a towering, jungle-covered mountain.

Today was arrival day for several groups of consultants.  Another jet taxied back out to the runway.  It looked identical to the aircraft they had come in on.  David watched that jet’s group of passengers carrying their bags up the sandy path to the buildings.  The flight attendant directed his group to do the same.

David and his new companions grabbed their things and followed step.  When they reached the buildings, they were shown to their quarters by an Air Force Major in his summer blues.

“Name?” He asked as David approached.

“David Manning.”

“Manning.  Yup.  214.  Up the stairs.  Here’s your key.  Throw your stuff in your room.  Please meet at The Classroom in one hour.  It’s the big building up on the hill with the large glass windows that overlook the runway.”

“Got it.  Thanks.”  David wanted to ask the Major a million questions, but the others were checking in and he decided to wait.  It sounded like they were to get an in-brief in another hour.

An hour later, David sat admiring the swaying palms and clear blue sea through the panoramic windows of the large amphitheater-style classroom.  He had showered and shaved using items from the duffel bag Tom had provided.  It felt good, but he was still exhausted from the trip.

He thought about his wife and daughters.  Lindsay was probably in tears.  God, he hoped she would forgive him for this.  If this were all really happening, he didn’t see how he had a choice.  David wondered why he kept thinking like that.  As if this might not be real.  Was it the magnitude of a war with China?  Or was it something else that caused him to feel uncomfortable?

The setting sun created a painting of bright orange and deep purples over the water. However, none of them knew exactly which body of water it was.  David thought it had to be the South Pacific based on the time of flight and climate.  But if that were true, why take them here, so far away?

The room was filled with curious men and women from a variety of places.  Some wore power suits.  Some had crew cuts and wore military fatigues.  Still others had on skinny jeans with fitted tees.  David gathered from several informal introductions that their backgrounds were as diverse as their looks suggested.  There were computer programmers and scientists, engineers and psychologists, military officers and policy analysts.  All were well educated and incredibly bright.  David counted twenty of them in all.  Like Henry and Bill, each had been told that their purpose there had something to do with a very important national security project.  But that was all they had been told before flying to the island.  It seemed that Tom was the one recruiter who had spilled the beans. David’s friends from his plane had already started to spread the word that this was about China, creating quite a bit of excitement.

The chatter hushed as a tall and very attractive Asian woman walked to the center of the classroom’s lowered stage.  She wore black slacks and a sleeveless silk shirt.   She looked out at the members of the classroom and they looked back at her, silenced.

She said, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Red Cell.  There are two reasons that you are here.  First, to piece together our collective knowledge so we better understand what we now know to be true about a future Chinese attack on the United States.”

The statement drew a mix of shock and disbelief. A few shouted questions but the woman held out her hands for silence.

She continued, “I know this is hard to believe for most of you.  But I assure you it is real.  I ask that you hold all of your questions until the end.  I believe I will cover a lot of them right now, and we will be providing a lot of amplifying details into the night.  But I say again, we have reason to believe that China is planning to attack the United States in some type of large-scale military operation within the next 12 to 18 months.”

Shouts erupted from the room and, again, the woman held out her palms until people quieted down.  David found her calm and confidence remarkable.  “We’ll answer all questions in due time.  The second reason you are all here is to actually develop plans for China to attack the United States.  I know this sounds ludicrous at first, but hear me out.  That is the main objective of a Red Cell.  Because we don’t know exactly what the enemy will do, we want to be prepared for what they could do.  Over the next three weeks, you will have no communication with the outside world.  You will work from early in the morning until late at night.  And it will be crucially important work.”

She walked off the stage as she spoke.  She stepped up the tiered levels of the classroom, careful to make eye contact with everyone in the room.

“We want you to collaborate and innovate.  Do what you do best—find solutions to challenging problems.  Each of you has been chosen because you are one of the top minds in your field.  This was a highly selective program.  You each have been handpicked for a certain relevant skill set.  You should be proud of the service that you will perform for your country, although it will not be something that you can ever put on a resume.”

David watched as she marched back down the stairs and stood on the lower stage.  She had perfect posture, tanned skin, and great muscle tone.  She was very tall.  He figured she must be five foot eleven.  And she spoke with a captivating charisma that made it hard to take his eyes off her.

“Many of you have top secret clearances with our government or the military prior to arriving.  Those of you that did not have been rushed an interim clearance. Normally that can take a year or more.  But this was an exceptional case...and we’ve done our homework.  Everyone has been quickly and fully vetted.  When I’m done here, you will all file in to the next room to sign some admin papers, including a non-disclosure agreement.  Nothing that goes on here will ever be made public.   These sessions are classified at the highest level.”

She stood completely still.  Every pause seemed to signify the importance of what she was saying.

“Secrecy is not our only priority.  We want the work here to be the very best quality.  It must be.  You have authority from the highest levels of our government to share any and all knowledge of your prior work experience in order to ensure that we take every possible consideration into account on this project. You will all be free to discuss anything with each other, regardless of classification level, to achieve our ultimate goal of protecting the United States.”

David noticed some of the people sitting in the seats around the classroom raise their heads a little higher.  They were proud to be chosen for something that was deemed so important.  A few squirmed at the idea of sharing classified information in an unfamiliar setting.

“My name,” the woman said, “is Lena Chou.  I am normally one of the CIA’s clandestine operations officers.  Here on this island, however, I represent a joint task force that includes, among others, the NSA, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, all branches of the military, and several other agencies...even DARPA.  That’s right, the geeks that invented the Internet.”

Lena gave a bright smile that lit up the room.  There were nervous chuckles in the audience.

“I will be the supervisor of this Red Cell for the next three weeks.  I’ve done this twice before.  In past Red Cells, we’ve used people like you from very creative and diverse fields to help build mock attack scenarios.  We have even used authors of techno thrillers to help us create fictional terrorist attack plots. While we don’t have any authors here this time, we are trying something new.  Natesh Chaudry is the CEO of a consulting firm located in Silicon Valley.  Natesh would you like to say anything?”

A young man that couldn’t have been past his late twenties stood up from his seat in the back row.  He wore stylish jeans and a collared Lacoste shirt.  David thought he looked like he was from India or Pakistan.

He said, “Hello guys, I’m Natesh.  I am glad to meet all of you.  I just arrived here today like you.  Also like you, I didn’t know where I was going or what this exactly was about.  Lena gave me a little bit of a preview about 30 minutes ago.  Needless to say, I’m still in shock.  Probably like a lot of you.  But I’m glad that I’m getting the opportunity to contribute to something so important.”

David thought this young man looked like he was out of his league. He seemed nervous.  David didn’t blame him.  Still, he spoke with an easy-going tone that made him instantly trustworthy.

Natesh continued, “Like Lena said, my team and I work in California with a variety of companies.  We help some of the top firms in the world increase their level of innovation in new products and services.  Normally I bring members of my team with me.  Due to the sensitive nature of this project, it’s just me here this time.  To put it simply, I’m an idea guy.  I’ve built my company by helping other companies create winning ideas. I have been brought in to act as a moderator during the sessions. I plan to break us up into teams for much of the time, and I’ll float between stations.  Sometimes, if the conversation goes to one of my areas of expertise, I’ll offer insights.  Honestly, while I don’t have much expertise in the invasion department...” Natesh was half-laughing in disbelief as he said that.  “...I’m a strategist at my core.  I think you’ll find that I can help connect some of your insights in ways that will make our overarching ideas more powerful.”  The classroom smiled with a tense politeness.  David could tell that from the expressions that people were just beginning to wrap their minds around what was going on.

Natesh said, “Please use your area of expertise where it is helpful, but be flexible and open to new ideas.  Try not to say `that won’t work’ too much.  Use the people around you to find out new ways that it can work.  Think about the links from one activity to another.  Try to help figure out all of the possible connections and solutions.  I will help out with this more as we go.  Thanks, and I look forward to working with you all.”

Lena said, “Thank you Natesh.  Today, we’ll go over what we, as representatives of our country, know to be true right now.  Our big-picture goal for week one is to identify potential vulnerabilities.  The goal of week two is to plan out how to best take action to capitalize on those vulnerabilities.”

A deep voice from the back of the room spoke up, “Are we going to be planning the actual defenses too?”

Lena looked up and cocked her head.  She spoke with the effortless rhythm of someone who had done a thousand public speaking events. “Could you please state your name and your background?”

The man cleared his throat.  “Sure.  Sorry.  Uhum.  My name is Bill Stanley.  I’m a defense contractor.  I work on satellite connections to drones and reconnaissance aircraft. And I’m retired Air Force.”

Lena said, “Excellent.   Mr. Stanley, welcome to the island and thank you for your service.  To answer your question, we want you to help build out a potential Chinese attack plan with your knowledge of what the expected American response would look like.   We want you to plan around that as if you are really trying to win the war for the Chinese.  Some of you have actually worked on counter-terrorism plans.  Some of you have worked on plans to counter “what-if” scenarios...like if North Korea invaded the South or if China invaded Taiwan.  But ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be different.”

She clicked a remote control in her hand and a large flat screen monitor in the front of the room went from a black screen to a map of the Pacific Rim.

“The short answer to Mr. Stanley’s question is no.  We are not here to plan our nation’s defense.  Some of you might have good ideas about this and could even be considered experts...but that isn’t why you are here.  We want you to play the bad guy.  If we brought you in to this project to also plan the defense, you’d be thinking of problems at the same time you would be thinking of solutions and you wouldn’t be as good at creating attack plans.  At least that’s what our psychologists have told us.”  She gave a nod to the grey-haired man in the second row who nodded back.  Apparently, he was a psychologist.

She clicked on the remote and the screen changed to a black map of the United States with a bunch of different sized blue dots scattered throughout.

“Anyone know what this is?” she asked.

“Those look like where our bases are.”  Bill responded.

“That’s right.”  She clicked on the button again and 2-D images of ships, tanks, soldiers, and aircraft popped up next to each of the bases with numbers next to them.  “And what’s this?”

“That’s our order of battle.”  Someone said from the back.

“Correct.” Lena said.  “Does everyone know what that means?”

There were a lot of heads shaking no.  “An order of battle is essentially how many of each type of weapon or fighting asset that we have.  Let’s look at a few statistics.”

She clicked again and a grid popped up.

“What are your takeaways here?” Lena asked.

David watched from the back of the class.  He remained quiet, never one to like speaking up in a classroom setting.

A young man in jeans sitting in the front row said, “It looks to me like we’d kick China’s butt in a fight because our air superiority would probably blow everything else up before it could do any damage.”

Lena said, “Okay.  Now let’s look at a different set of numbers.”

“Thoughts?” Lena asked.

Someone whistled.  David knew it was a mismatch.  Everyone knew how big China was.  But if it really came to a land war...those numbers were a bit scary.

Natesh said, “That’s a lot of manpower.  And a lot of production capability when compared to the U.S.”

One of the uniformed military officers said, “Okay Lena, this is great.  But it’s not like we’re talking about China who can drive right over and attack us in hand-to-hand combat.  That’s just not the way warfare works.  The militaries would clash and I know for a fact that we have a pretty serious technological advantage over most of the Chinese platforms.”

“So if China was to attack us, do you think that our military would be able to hold them off?”

The man shifted in his seat and said, “I mean...I would guess...yeah.  I think so, probably.”

Lena said, “Okay.  We as a group are going to get very smart very quickly on some of the data that might help us answer this question.  Many of you are asking yourselves right now, can China beat us?  But we don’t want you to think of it like that.  We want you to think of it like this.  How can China beat us?  Assume that they can.  Uncover the path they must take.  Only then can we really prepare our defense.  It is thinking like this that kept us safe from another 9/11 for so many years.  Now, you each shall get familiar with China’s capabilities and use your collective expertise to identify America’s weaknesses. There will be a different set of experts that will create the defensive response plan based on our learnings.  That will be weeks after we are finished, and most of you will not be involved.  For us, these next few weeks are about figuring out the most effective strategies and tactics that China could use to make war on the U.S.  Does that make sense?”

“Yes ma’am.” said Bill.

Lena continued, “After September 11th, we created a Red Cell designed to prevent another major terrorist attack.  Typically, the opposing force in a military exercise is red and the allied force is blue.  A Cell, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is the unit where plans are made.  Hence, the Red Cell is used to create the enemy's plans.  After September 11th, we used this organization to help us think outside the box and hypothesize what our enemies might do.  At that time, it was terrorist attacks that we were focused on.  It helped us tremendously in identifying what defensive mechanisms needed to be strengthened, and what targets had no adequate defense in place.”

She stood looking at the group.  The audience was captivated.

“Each of you were carefully selected for having a great combination of current and past expertise in fields that will likely be very important to these plans.  But you have also been selected for another very important reason.  You can be trusted.  Or more accurately, most of you have bosses that can be trusted.  Each of you was handpicked by the person who sent you here.  This group has not been compromised.  We put this operation together as a way to prepare now while another op is underway to root out Chinese spies that have infiltrated us.  More on that momentarily. The consultants in this Red Cell need to figure out what we think we could be up against.  What plans are already in motion?  Some of you know bits and pieces that will inform this. What do we think the Chinese could do?  The rest will be hypothesis.  What should their targets be and how would they attack them?  Each of us knows something that will likely prove crucial.  It’s up to us to work efficiently so that we are well prepared for what’s to come. ”

David listened to Lena speak and his doubts began to recede. It was all starting to make sense.  Didn’t In-Q-Tel constantly worry about the Chinese hacking their systems?  There were cyber-attacks going on back and forth between the East and West every day.  It was a modern cold war.  She was an excellent speaker.  The more he listened to her, the more a war with China seemed realistic. Either that or Lena was a remarkable liar.

Lena said, “We’ll begin sharing out tonight after dinner.  We want to know what you all think are the biggest weaknesses in our defense.  When you look at 9/11 and at Pearl Harbor, our nation was not prepared.  We did not see it coming because we had been conditioned to not look in the right places.  Attacks like those are what we are here to prevent.  We are here to think of all the different ways a foreign power might try to do serious harm to our nation.  Some of you have extensive knowledge of things like nuclear power plants and the electrical grid.  Some of you understand very different things like how the US populace might respond to propaganda or psychological operations.”

The classroom collectively raised their eyebrows at that one.

“Oh yes...that’s right.  Bill, you asked what we would be doing in week three?  I never finished answering.  Well here it is:  We won’t just be looking at a one-time kinetic attack.  This isn’t a hit and run that we’re planning for.  We’ll also be looking at ways that China might be able to invade us and successfully occupy our nation.  That will be week three.  What would they do?  How would they go about it?  Shock and awe?  Win hearts and minds?  We will conduct psychological operations planning. We don’t want our defense team that looks at our work to just build a big moat with nothing behind it.  You must think of what China should do to control the castle once inside the walls.  Only then will our defense planners be able to cover our castle grounds with spikes.”

There was commotion in the room.

“Many of you doubt our reasons for concern.  You may believe that China could be planning an attack.  But you are saying to yourself, everyone knows that the US is the mightiest country in the world with the greatest military in the world.  I ask you to please hold those assumptions in check while we’re here.  We have a duty to our country to suspend disbelief, to prepare for the worst, and to think outside the box of ways that China could overcome our advantages.  Only then will we truly be able to see all of the possible vulnerabilities.”

There were nods of understanding in the audience.  In David’s office life, most meetings involved tables of people with laptops open and cell phones out.  He was struck by the level of undivided attention that Lena commanded when she spoke.  Granted, there were no computers or phones in anyone’s possession.  But it was more than that.  Between her charisma and confidence, she controlled the eyes of everyone in the room.  Aside from her speech, the only sound was the thrum of the air conditioning coming through the floor vents.

She said, “This threat requires urgent action and new ideas.  We can’t use the same lessons learned in the sessions that were held a decade ago when trying to protect against another September 11th.  For we are no longer trying to protect against terrorists, but against the country with the largest economy and military on the planet.”

The room became quiet.  David could sense that reality was setting in for the others in the classroom.

“A few weeks ago we lost contact with one of our assets in Shanghai.  Before that happened, he sent me a message that revealed two important things.  The most important was what we have already discussed.  China is planning to attack the United States.  Very few in the Chinese leadership are aware of this plan.  They are dedicated to keeping it secret.  But rest assured, the decision makers that matter are very aware.  The second big item that our Chinese asset revealed is the reason you all are here instead of a team from the Pentagon doing this in the Pentagon.  We as a country have been infiltrated by the Chinese intelligence community.  Badly.  And they have been actively deepening this penetration.  The Chinese have key people feeding them information inside just about every key government organization.  Sleepers have been activated.  New operatives have been inserted.  They are making moves to get ready for a war.”

David heard rumbles from around the room.

“There is a bit of a cat-and-mouse game going on right now.  There is just a small team assigned to this project.  We are keeping this operation quiet, even from our own agencies, while we figure out whom we can trust.  At the same time, we know that we have to plan our defense.  While we know that the Chinese are planning the attack and we know some of their objectives, we don’t know exactly how they intend to do it.  We know a little, but not nearly enough.  That’s where you come in.  This isn’t just a regular consulting project.  We want you to be ruthless and calculating as you think of what they might do.  We will provide you with what we have uncovered as their probable objectives.  But before our man was killed...and yes, he was killed...”

A few people gasped.  Most stared at Lena in shock.  She spoke with an unemotional detachment.  They were hanging on every word.

“…we were unable to get any of their detailed plans.  We have begun a very thorough mole-hunt in the government and military right now.  We need to use the next few months to root out every Chinese spy that has infiltrated us.  Only then can we be share this information with the people who will need to know.  What we don’t want to do is tip our hand and bring on war without preparation.  We are afraid that if we start disseminating this information and some of their spies find out, the Chinese might move up their timetable before we can prepare.  Also, in that scenario they would then be attacking with their spies in place.  That can’t happen.”

She looked around the room.

“I know this is shocking.  I know it may seem unbelievable if you are just now hearing it.  But I assure you it is very real.  Our world may soon change drastically.  We may be in a war like our generation has never known.  So I ask that you each do your part to the best of your ability.  Work hard.  Make the best decisions you can.  Help to prepare our country for the worst.  Good luck.  Now, let’s get to work.”

The group sat stunned.  Slowly, people started to stand up and move down the stairs aisles of the room towards the back door where the administrative papers waited.  The Air Force Major was there, helping everyone get their paperwork done.  The crowd resumed speculation on what the future had in store with a renewed fervor.

David found himself waiting in line to sign his non-disclosure agreement and collect a security badge.  That struck him as a bit silly.  If this island really were in the middle of nowhere, wouldn’t Lena and whoever else was running this show already know exactly who was here?  The badges seemed more for show than anything.  But show for whom?

“Thank you for participating today Mr. Manning.”

David hadn’t seen Lena walk up behind him.  Closer up, she was even more attractive.  Her dark brown eyes stared intently into his.

“Of course.  I’m glad to help.”

“I’m very interested to hear more about ARES.  We’ll look forward to a full briefing from you later.  I am fascinated to hear about its capabilities.  And to know more about these men that have created the program.”

David was surprised she knew about it.  But if that was why Tom sent him, it made sense that she would.

He said, “ARES.  Yeah.  Well I don’t know if you would even call them men.  The three of them were in their early twenties.  Boys, I’d say.”

She shook her head.  She said, “Remarkable.  But I guess many of our strongest tech companies were started by exuberant youths.  It takes a fiery intellect to really change the world.  Like young Natesh there.”

She nodded toward Natesh, who was out of earshot across the room.

David said, “It sounds like we’ll need that brain power to help us, in light of the plot you’ve uncovered.  Hopefully we can harness that power for the good guys.”

Lena said, “David, that’s why we brought you all here, to harness that intellectual power.  And I promise you we’ll do exactly that.”

She nodded a farewell, turned, and walked out the door.

David watched her go and felt an uneasy voice in his head begin to whisper.  It was the same voice that he felt when Tom was speaking to him on the plane.  Lena and Tom had both said all of the right things.

But the whisper was still there.  The whisper was what his father used to call it when David was a boy.  His father’s sage advice never failed to keep David out of trouble:  When the whisper tells you not to follow the pack, hear the whisper like a scream.

CHAPTER 3

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Natesh sat on his bed, his moist palms pressed against white cotton bed sheets.  He was always the most nervous on the first day.  That was when all those intelligent and accomplished eyes began to judge him.  In the first 30 minutes, Natesh found, the vast majority of his spectators made their decision as to the worth of his service.  So like any good salesman, he had to nail it on the up front.  And he did it, time after time.

That was how he had made his millions.  Not through his intellectual prowess.  Smart people were a dime a dozen.  Natesh made his millions by selling himself.  He delivered both a high quality exhibition and intellectual output for his clients.  But he had to give them a convincing show for their money.

He always got nervous, and today’s nervousness went beyond anything that he had felt before. He needed to keep calm.  Just stick to the script.  He must forget that the final product here wasn’t a product at all, but bloodshed.  He tried to console himself with the fact that if he did his job well, there would be less of it.

Natesh had his routine.  The stories changed depending on the exact project, but the basic formula stayed constant.  Introductions came first.  Then he would tell a story to both captivate and serve as inspiration for a strategy.  For this project, Natesh decided that he would tell his story about a professional pickpocket from New York City.  That one usually went over well.  Natesh would follow that up with comparisons between the competitors.  Normally his competitors were two major conglomerates.  Today, they were two superpowers.  From there, Natesh would get to the meat of the conversation.  He would go over project objectives and begin brainstorming about ways to create competitive advantage.  MBA’s usually ate it up.  He wasn’t so sure about this audience.

It was highly likely that the activities they created in this particular project would involve killing on a mass scale.  It would be unlike anything Natesh had worked on before.  He hoped that his gift for analysis and strategic thinking surpassed the line between corporate battle and actual battle.  Certainly the man who had picked him for this assignment thought so.

But oftentimes, with the gift of genius comes the curse of thinking deeply.  Life’s harsh realities were magnified by this lens.  Natesh thought about how people on the Manhattan project had felt, knowing that they were designing death.  There was the utilitarian justification that was used by so many after the bombs were dropped on Japan.  A supposedly far larger number would have been lost in a hostile invasion of the Japanese mainland.  Was this war-planning analogous to that?  They were designing a most efficient plan for war. Natesh hoped that the greatest good would rise from the smoke.

Three sharp knocks sounded on his door.

He opened it to find Lena staring at him.  Natesh’s parents were both Indian.  While he would never admit as much in an American society dominated by political correctness, he preferred women that were from a similar ethnic background to his own.  Lena, however, was a truly beautiful Asian woman.  Her looks seriously called into question any previous preference Natesh had.  Her dark brown eyes had a fire that showed intelligence, confidence, and—what was it?  There was some other quality there.  Passion?  No.  Ruthless commitment.  She looked like she had never failed at anything in her life, and that she had expected as much.  With full lips and a well-proportioned, athletic body, she looked like she could have been a model for one of those women’s fitness magazines.  Natesh wondered if it was her looks that made his blood pressure rise when she was around.  No, it was her ruthlessness.

“Good morning, Lena.  We have another twenty minutes before—”

“Let’s talk in my office.  Please follow me.”

She turned and walked down the barracks hallway.  Natesh grabbed his key and presentation notes off his nightstand and hustled to catch up.  He was glad that he had gotten ready early.  They walked out of the barracks and down a 100-foot-stretch of gravel that brought them to the smallest building on the island base.  Everyone assumed that this was a base, although Lena was likely the only one that knew for sure.  An arc of tropical trees shaded the path.

Natesh’s feet crunched through the stones and seashells as he walked. The morning sun cast a beautiful light over the beaches beyond the runway.  He wanted to stop and admire the monstrous green mountain at the heart of the island, but Lena trudged onward at a quick pace.  A trickle of sweat slid down his forehead as he hobbled after her.

They reached the concrete structure with satellite dishes and a group of antennae on top.  Razor wire lined the roof.  Metal bars caged in each of the narrow windows, making it look like a small town jail.  Lena’s fingers danced over the digital keypad as she typed in the code to the single steel door.  Natesh heard a faint beep and then a click as the door unlatched.  They entered the Comms Building, as it was known, and Lena sealed the door behind them.

She looked at him, her eyes filled with that ever-present intensity.  He had seen that look from many a successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.  Athletes called it the eye of the tiger.  Natesh thought this metaphor fit.  Lena was every bit the predator.

Her voice was flat.  “So...are you all set?”

Natesh could feel the sweat between the tips of his fingers and his palms.  “Yes.  All set.”  He tried to sound calm.

She saw through the lie.  “You’re worried?”

Natesh said, “It’s just a lot to process, that’s all.”

“Yes.”  She nodded.

“I’m fine.  I’ve done this sort of thing many times.  I’ll be fine.”

Disapproval flickered in her eyes, then calm.  Her voice was soft as she said, “Natesh.  We have watched you for some time now.  You are quite capable.  I know that you’ve never done anything like this before.  But to be frank, no one has. Stick to your routine.  Get in a rhythm, and be the conduit for others to provide the information.”

He nodded.  “Sure.  Sure.  As you say.  I will be good.  Thanks.”

“I’m here to help.”

She said,  “This is the Communications room.  Major Combs and you will be the only ones with access.  Take this paper.  On it is your code that will open the outer door to this building.  Memorize it.  You won’t be able to take it with you.  You’ll be able to go on these computers and get information from the outside world.  These computers are on a censored and monitored network.  You won’t be able to access to the whole Internet.  If there are any sites that you need or information that you aren’t able to get, the email system only goes to one person.  He is my colleague that will be able to do external research for you.  We’re giving you this privilege because we want you to be the single point of contact for all of the members of the Red Cell.  If there is information that you all need to access as you are making your plans, you’ll be the one to get it.  Understood?”

Natesh nodded.  “Yes.”  He looked around the room.  There were three spotless computer terminals.  The computers were bulkier than what he was used to.  Military grade, he imagined.  There was another steel door at the far side of the room.  It had a keypad next to it, just like the one on the outside of the building.

Natesh asked, “Does my code work on that door?”

“No.”  Replied Lena.

“What’s back there?”

“My living quarters.”

“You need a digital lock on your living quarters?”

She frowned.  “We had better head to class.”

They rose and walked outside, Lena shutting the door as they left.  Once again they walked next to each other on the gravel path.  This time they headed to the second largest of the buildings, the Classroom.

The Classroom sat atop a small hill, which overlooked the runway on one side.  A pristine beach of dark grey sand lay just outside its walls on the other. Breaking waves intermingled with the sounds of island gulls hovering overhead.

It was almost eight a.m.  Natesh just had to get through this presentation.  Then he would have the momentum to get through this first day.  Then he would get through the first week.  And then...Well, there was a lot of change ahead. Natesh tried not to think of how important his part might be.

As if she could hear his thoughts, Lena said, “Just breathe.  We briefed them yesterday on the big picture.  They understand what’s at stake here.  Remember that.  Everyone here wants to help defend the United States.  You are a talented man.  And our country needs you.”  She put her hand on the muscle between his neck and shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.  “I know you’re absorbing a lot right now.  We all are.  But you need to relax, Natesh. All of this will work out.”

They stood outside the double glass doors of the Classroom building.

“Thanks,” he replied.  There was nothing like a few choice words from an attractive woman to prop up the ego of a doubting man.  What’s more, Lena seemed to have a gift for handling people.

Moments later, Natesh stood on the auditorium stage, studying the faces in his audience.  His nerves calmed as he shifted into business mode.  About half of the seats were filled.  The others were funneling in.  Most people sipped steaming coffee from Styrofoam cups.

The loud drone of aircraft engines caused most people to look out expansive windows.  A large multi-engine propeller plane rolled down the runway.  Every other day, that plane was supposed to be bringing in supplies from who knows where.  Lena and the Major had told them about it last night during their indoctrination.  This was the first drop-off.

They had been told about all of the buildings on the island.  They were told where to go to get food and to wash their clothes.  There was very little infrastructure.  Only a handful of Asian maids and cooks lived in back of the cafeteria.  None spoke English, not that it mattered.  The Major had warned against speaking with them.  They were cleared to work here, but no conversations were to go on within earshot of any of them.  There were strict security rules to follow.  Lena had explained the rules clearly.  Don’t go outside the boundaries of the base fence.  It circled the runway and the buildings, but split the island in half, with nothing but mountainous jungle on the other side.  Don’t communicate off the island.  Natesh wasn’t sure how anyone could have pulled that off anyway.  It wasn’t like they had a satellite phone.  Lena told them that if anyone had any problems, medical or otherwise, they were to see her as soon as possible.  No one had raised any concerns.

Natesh watched the runway scene through the window as men in protective eyewear and helmets jumped down from a retractable ramp on the rear of the aircraft.  The men rolled off crates near one of the taxiways and then immediately hopped back on board.  Within minutes, the plane had taken off.  As soon as it had, the Asian stewards that cooked their food and made up their rooms each day scurried out to the crates and brought them back to the cafeteria building.  What was this place?

Everyone was seated.  Natesh walked over and stood up in front of the podium.  He looked at his watch.  8:01 a.m.  “Good morning.  I hope you all have been able to sleep better than I have.”

He got a few tired smiles in reply.

“Well...at least we all know why we’re here.  Let’s do the best that we possibly can at this.  The better job we do at planning out possible Chinese attack strategies and tactics, the better our nation will be able to prepare.”

“Amen.” someone said in the back.  There were several nods of approval at that.  Most of the group had progressed from the frantic denials and arguments of last night into a patriotic eagerness to contribute.

“So...” He looked at everyone in the room.  He saw Lena in the back of the room, standing by the window.  She had an encouraging smile and gave him a polite nod, as if to prod him along.

Natesh cleared his throat.  He said, “Let’s look at the facts.  We started to examine some of the numbers yesterday.  On everyone’s desk is an official report that compares China and the US.  It’s a threat assessment conducted jointly by the CIA and the Pentagon last year that essentially does what we’re going to do today.  It’s a SWOT analysis.  For those of you that aren’t familiar, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.  But what took the CIA and the Pentagon over six months to conclude, I can sum up in two sentences.  One: China is really big.  And two: the United States has a military technology advantage.  Let me ask you all a question.  If you all have ten men and I have just one...but my one has a gun where as your ten men have swords...how would you attack me?”

“I’d rush you,” said a young man in the front row.

“Alright. So, rushing the man with a gun, that would be an example of a tactic we could use.  We, if we were the Chinese, could gather as many troops as possible and start ramping up production of military assets.  We could start massing troops on US beachheads and overcome the American military with overwhelming force.  But I can tell you from my experience in business strategy, that this may not be the best tactic to use if it is not accompanied by other strong initiatives.  For our strategy must also take into account our long-term goals.  Our strategy will help us to identify the best tactical options.  We can then make a series of tactical choices with our end goal in mind.”

Natesh looked out at his audience.  Several of the military men had looks of skepticism on their faces.  They saw a young Indian man trying to teach them about military strategy.  That was fine with Natesh.  Let them think what they want.  He clenched his jaw a few times and focused on Lena, standing in the back of the room.   She gave him a thumbs-up.  She really was a nice coach.

Natesh’ voice grew stronger. “What can China do better than the United States?  And when you think about this, I want you all to keep thinking about the stated objectives that our spy uncovered.  We went over them last night.  Objective One: Capture and Permanently Occupy the United States.  What are the implications of this?  How does that limit China’s tactical choices?”

Brooke said, “If China wants long-term control over US territory then they would likely want to do minimal damage.  You don’t want to dent up a car before you steal it.  That means they’d use non-nuclear tactics to preserve infrastructure.”

David raised his hand, “If they want to be in the US long-term, that also means that they have got to plan to win hearts and minds.  Kind of like what we tried to do in Iraq.”

Natesh pointed at them both.  “Exactly.  Now you’re thinking about this the right way. What advantages does China have that they could leverage?”

People started to shout out ideas.  The energy of a high-participation classroom took hold.  In a strange way, people were into this.  He let the group conversation keep going for a while.  He wanted everyone to get comfortable contributing and talking openly.  There was a good discussion of several different ways China could capitalize on their size and resources.

After about 20 minutes, Natesh looked at his watch and said, “Okay.  We’re doing great.  Let’s recap. We talked about Chinese advantages: Size, first-mover advantage, surprise, industrial capacity, and quantity of certain assets.  We discussed how the US is more technologically advanced with most weapons.  I heard someone mention that this could be an interesting route to explore as an opportunity for China instead of a weakness.  In the business world, this is a valuable way to unlock competitive advantage.  If we really can turn a perceived strength into a weakness, that should be a major part of our focus.  Let’s flag that one and come back to it.  Okay, so pulling these first few ideas all together: How does China execute a surprise attack that allows them to maximize first-mover advantage, take out America’s technological advantage, and leverage the numerical advantage of their troops?  Secondly, how does China keep hold of the United States territory long-term without destroying needed infrastructure or creating a resistance movement?  Does everyone agree that these were a few of our initial killer questions?”

People gave cordial yet uneasy nods.  It was hard to feel patriotic about planning your nation’s invasion.

“Okay, let’s take a five-minute break.”

The group got up and scattered to bathrooms and stocked refrigerators. Natesh got a plastic bottled water and went back to the podium.  Bill and David were there waiting for him.

David said, “Hey, nice job so far.”

“Thank you, David.  I appreciate the participation.”

Bill said, “Yep, I think this group should do a fine job at this.  I just wish I knew it was going to take this long.”

“Oh?  You got somewhere to be?” David said.

Bill looked uncomfortable, like he hadn’t meant to share.  “Well.  The truth is, Allison’s been sick.”

David looked at Natesh and then back to Bill.  “Oh.  Hey, I’m sorry to hear that.”

Bill said, “Ah, it’s all right.  It’s been going on for a few years now, on and off.  I agreed with my boss that I would go on this trip just a few days ago, before we knew her results.  But just a few hours before I left, we found out.  I told her I would cancel the trip, but she said the chemo wouldn’t start until I got back.”

Natesh looked down at the floor.  He was still in his twenties.  He’d never known anyone with cancer.  But he knew what it was like to lose a family member.  “Bill, I am so sorry.  Please let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

Bill looked up as if he’s snapped out of a spell.  “Oh ah, thanks there Natesh.  Naw, you don’t worry about it.  Sorry to bring it up.  It’s just been on my mind.  Let’s just get back to work and get this done right.”  David and Bill walked up the stairs of the stadium-seating classroom as Natesh re-checked his notes.

After everyone sat back down, he began, “I was not always a California guy.  I went to high school in the Big Apple.  I remember one field trip we took when I was 17.  We went to see this professional pickpocket, if you can believe it.  This guy had learned the trade from his family but he didn’t want to be a criminal himself.  So he decided to teach seminars and do shows about being a pickpocket.  He would call people up on stage and say, “Hi, my name is so and so, and in less than three minutes, I’m going to take your wallet.”  And the thing is...he would do just that.  It was unbelievable to see.  And the audience members who were up there on the stage would have no idea it had happened until after the fact.”

Natesh was getting comfortable now.  He walked down from the stage and up the stairs, the way Lena had yesterday when they had all arrived.  There she was, still in the back of the class.  She wasn’t looking at him now.  Natesh saw her watching people and then writing notes in her book.

“This fellow was a professional pick-pocket.  But not the kind that made a living taking people’s money.  This was a man that had learned how to do all of those things on the street, but now lived an honest life by performing for audiences and showing people how it was done.  He was incredible.  I saw him take a man’s wallet, then his cell phone, and even his wristwatch without him knowing it.  But that wasn’t all.  He actually took the man’s eyeglasses off his face.  The man’s eyeglasses.  I know it’s hard to believe and I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it myself.”

Natesh gave a wide grin.  “It was incredible.  My friends, I’ve worked on strategy for a number of years.  I realize that I’m younger than the majority of you here.  But in studying our situation for the past day and comparing it to various past scenarios in the private sector, I think this may be one of the potential routes we can take.  We need to identify how we can take America’s glasses right off its face.”

Bill said, “You want the Chinese to become pickpockets?”

Still smiling, Natesh responded, “Precisely that.  You see, the pickpocket man told us all how he was able to do what he did.  He told us all how much practice it had taken him to perfect the sleight of hand moves to take the various articles from people without them realizing it.  But that was less than half the trick.  It all has to do with cognitive science.  Our brains can only process so much information at once.  So if they get too much information all at the same time, they are forced to prioritize.  Through the power of suggestion, the pickpocket helps them to suggest what priority they process the information by directing their attention to various other things.  If he wants to take your wallet, he calls your attention to your wristwatch.  While you’re looking at your wristwatch on your left hand, he’ll talk to you, pat you on the shoulder with one hand, and take your wallet with the other.  He moves in close so there is less time to react.  Before you know it, there are just too many activities happening at once to process them all efficiently.”

David said, “So you think China should launch a bunch of distractions?”

Natesh said, “Again, we’re here to plan the attack.  I think that the people we have in this room can help us to identify and plan enough high-priority decoy events that the United States won’t see the eyeglasses taken off their face.”

Brooke raised her hand and said, “Natesh, I appreciate a good story.  But having worked in signals intelligence collections, we do a pretty good job of monitoring China.  How do you propose that—”

“I’m not saying that you don’t, Brooke.  But I think we need to come up with ideas for how to create a distraction that would effectively require the majority of the United States’ time and resources to be dedicated to it.  Better yet, let’s think of a few distractions.  Tie them together.  But don’t tie them to China.  So when the United States has its eye on its wallet and cell phone, the glasses become overlooked.”

“And how do you do that?” asked Brooke.

“Start a separate war.  Make the U.S. go to war with another country so they’re spread thin and absorbed in it.” said David.  “That’s what I’d do.”

Henry said, “Okay, what country can we pick a fight with that would cause us to mobilize the most military assets?  How about Canada?  I hate those guys and their polite manners.”

“Iran?  North Korea?  Russia?” said Brooke.  Others chimed in with their own opinions.  The group chatted about it and remained reasonable in their arguments for each nation.

“It’s gotta be Iran.” Said Major Combs.  “If the US went to war with Russia or North Korea, we’ll be in a better location to fight back against China.  I wouldn’t want that if I was them.”

“That’s true.  You’d want the United States to be distracted and also in a bad position to respond.” said someone from the front of the room.

“So how do we start a war with Iran?  One that doesn’t get the U.S. pissed off at China for starting?” asked David.

Natesh said, “Okay.  Here’s the way we’ll do this.  You all have plastic buckets with sticky notes and markers near your desks.  If you don’t, share with the people next to you.  Write down a few ways that you think we could plausibly start an Iranian-US war.  Again, we are China for this exercise.  How can China encourage the start of a U.S.-Iranian war without implicating themselves?  Think about your own areas of expertise and use that if it applies.  Everyone write it down on your piece of paper.  Write down a few ideas if you have them.  Then bring them up to these white boards behind me and stick them there.  Brooke, would you mind helping me?  We’ll bucket these ideas into categories once they’re all up here.  Okay, you’ve all got ten minutes.”

Soon the white boards at the front of the classroom were filled.  Brooke wrote down different categories with her dry erase marker and stuck the notes in straight columns under each one.  Natesh thought to himself how familiar this scene felt.  It was the same exercise he had done a million times for corporate America.  In the past, Natesh had filled white boards with things like consumer insights, software advantages, hardware designs attributes, and countless other service or product-oriented lists.  He looked at the rainbows of sticky notes on the board and thought to himself how innocent it looked.  And how within a year, one of these ideas may very well come to fruition and begin soaking the world in blood.

*****

The session lasted all day.  During lunchtime, the group ate sandwiches at their desks and went over Chinese military capabilities and strategy.  The afternoon was a share session.  Various members of the team provided amplifying information from their respective fields.  Brooke disclosed what she knew about the operation in Shanghai.  An expert on Asian Pacific politics and military gave his opinion on the Chinese military buildup over the past decade.  Henry said that several of the telecom companies he worked with had reportedly been hacked in the past few months.  Word on the street was that the Chinese were testing their security.

By 5 p.m., the constant talking had exhausted Natesh. The lead idea was becoming clear.  The best Chinese attack would be to overcome America’s strengths by somehow negating their technological advantages.  But the group still bickered back and forth on how that could be done.

Bill was red-faced.  He said, “Look, you’ve still got five thousand reasons why the Chinese couldn’t attack us.  And each one of them has got a nuclear tip.  Uncle Sam’s got submarines ready to fire off their missiles at a moments notice, and they can’t possibly have all of those boomers located.  There are US air force bombers and missile silos that are still playing the same cold war game: deterrence.  It doesn’t matter that China doesn’t want to launch nukes on us.  If they try to attack us on land, we will launch nukes on them and obliterate their attacking force.  Even our current liberal-ass president would use a nuclear weapon if someone were attacking his house.  Excuse my politics.”

A few people grinned.  Most ignored the jab.

“He’s right,” said Brooke.  “Not only that, but American communications and navigation technology is best-in-class.  We have more technologically advanced ships, aircraft, and weapons that can do real damage at long range.”

“It’s called hyper war,” said one of the military officers.  “Speed is the key factor.  We can talk about China head-faking with a war in Iran till we’re blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is, if America really wanted to, we could mobilize a global attack that would destroy a majority of Chinese military assets within 24 hours.”

Natesh rubbed his eyes, “But I thought we had discussed this.  These technologies rely on a few key activities to take place, correct?  So if those activities are removed, there goes the advantage.  This—”

Another of the military officers in the front row said, “Natesh, look...military strategy isn’t like in the business world.  We aren’t talking about apps on your smartphone.  We’re talking about complex, interwoven technologies like the navigation systems in an F-18 and the GPS smart bombs it carries.  We have technologies like the secure data link that connects all of our armed forces so that they can combine each other's sensor data and look at one enhanced battle picture.  There isn’t one silver bullet that could take out all of these technological advantages and eliminate the nuclear threat.  I appreciate that we’re all here trying to prevent a war.  China’s nothing to scoff at, certainly.  But we’ve been talking about different ways to do it all day and I just don’t see how this threat can go beyond just that...a threat.”

There were nods of agreement in the audience as others backed up the idea of American superiority.  Brooke said, “There’s just no way for China to overcome the technology advantage and nuclear response of the United States.”

Lena hadn’t said a word all day.  She stood tall in the back of the room.  The light from the windows contrasted against her silhouette.  But now her voice was firm.

“Actually, there is...”

CHAPTER 4

"Tricks, traps, ambushes and other efforts resulting in the surprise of one party by another have been commonplace in Chinese warfare from as far back as we have records…" –historian David A. Graff, associate professor at the Institute of Military History and 20th Century Studies at Kansas State University

The class sat in stunned silence, waiting for Lena to finish.

“What do you mean?” asked Bill.

Lena said, “The Chinese have a way to wipe out America’s satellites.  It’s a new and very powerful cyber-weapon, developed in America.  We don’t know how or when they got it, but our latest intelligence confirms that they are in possession and testing it out.”

The blood drained from David’s face as he realized why he was chosen to come to this island. “They have ARES?”  he asked, knowing the answer.

“Yes.” replied Lena.

Brooke asked, “What’s ARES?”

David said, “It’s a cyber-weapon, like she said.  The place I work...we keep an eye out for different types of information technology that might be useful to our intelligence agencies.  About a year ago, some students at MIT created a type of worm that could bypass all known security in several key communications channels.  It was designed to work on data farms and the vast majority of military and communications satellites.  When coupled with other programs that the Defense Department already had, the applications became devastatingly potent.  It could potentially take satellites offline, hijack their signals, or even crash them into the earth’s atmosphere.  In data-server farms, which much of the cloud-based world is now reliant upon, the theory is that it could cut power long enough for the servers to overheat and become seriously damaged.  The MIT students had used a lot of the same code that the NSA’s STUXNET used to sabotage Iranian nuclear centrifuges a few years ago.  But this worm was several orders of magnitude more advanced than that.  What these kids came up with was unreal.”

“And the Chinese have this?” said Henry.

Lena nodded.  “We believe so.”

Henry said, “Awesome.  Glad my taxes are being put to good use.  So, let’s say there are between 1500 and 2000 active satellites right now.  Most are communications satellites.  About a third are military satellites.  Those numbers include foreign ones.  There are another 2000-3000 inactive satellites just floating in orbit.  I would think that the most efficient means of F-ing us over would be to program all of the active ones to crash.”

The classroom was quiet.

Bill said, “Can they really do that?”

Brooke said, “Well it wouldn’t be easy.  There are a lot of protections.  But ultimately it comes down to two things—do you have the hacking capability and the hardware capability?  Russia and China would likely be the only nations that could do something like that.  And they’d only be able to do it for a short period of time as far as I know.  I’m probably not supposed to admit this, but China actually took control of two of our satellites back in 2008 - a Landsat 7 and a Terra AM-1.  They had control for 12 minutes.  People got fired.  But it’s hard to do.  It takes an incredible amount of energy to power the dish on the ground.  Probably around 5 to 10 million watts.”

Someone asked, “How much is that?”

Henry said, “About the output for a really big TV antenna, or a small African nation.  It’s a lot of power, and that’s just for one satellite.  But we aren’t talking brute force here.  This ARES, if I understand correctly, wouldn’t just help them grab a satellite with a high-powered dish on the ground.  Am I right?”

David nodded.  “Yes.  You are.  It’s a game-changer because the worm gets past the security systems and takes it over with a cyber-attack.  You no longer need brute strength to hack into a satellite.  They effectively steal our username and password and then replace it so we can’t regain control.  And they aren’t just limited to one satellite at a time.  They can scattershot multiple vehicles.  If they developed the hardware that the U.S. Air Force and NSA have, they could theoretically take over all of our satellites in under 12 hours.”

Henry said, “Sweet.  So just to be clear, total worst scenario imaginable.  That’s all you need to say.   Total worst scenario imaginable.  Awesome.”

“There goes the US military’s communications and navigation advantage.”

“Christ...” said the military officer in the front row.  “But wouldn’t people find out?  I mean, who monitors this stuff?”

Brooke said, “Of course we’d find out.  There are lots of agencies that monitor it.  NORAD.  The NSA.  Langley.  The National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Virginia.  The point is, we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”

Natesh said, “But China would probably wait until the right time to do this.  What do you military guys call it?  When you make sure you hit the enemy with everything you have at the same time?”

Major Combs said, “Simultaneous time on top.”

David began to feel dizzy as he saw where all of this was leading.

Natesh asked, “What would the damage be?  What would it look like if China took out all of our satellites?”

Henry said, “It would put a strain on us at first, but the underwater and land-based fiber optic cables handle the vast majority of our data transfers. You might notice it on some international phone calls.  Obviously satellite TV and satellite phones would be down.  Eventually, though, it would get worse…”

“What about the loss of GPS?  What would that do?” Natesh asked.

Bill said, “That would hurt a lot.  There is just such a dependence on GPS today.  Between that and the loss of weather satellites over the oceans, I wouldn’t be surprised to see global air traffic grind to a halt on day one.  Ships and aircraft would have to navigate the old fashioned way, and that means slower and burning more fuel.  Say goodbye to drones too.  The US Air Force minted more drone pilots this year than regular pilots.  If they were to take out satellites, we wouldn’t be able to use drones nearly as well.  Probably not at all over long-range.”

Brooke said, “I think that would have a much bigger impact on the military’s ability to fight war than most people realize.  Almost all of our weapons and weapons-delivery platforms rely on GPS navigation to precisely track and hit their targets.  If you took out the entire global satellite network, that would be a huge technological equalizer.”

Henry said, “I get the military thing.  But there is a bigger picture impact here.  All those GPS satellites help us synchronize our global clocks.  Timing between everything from traffic lights to water treatment to railroad schedules would start getting clogged up.  Web searches would be affected and the Internet could drastically slow down.  Think about the financial markets.  All of those hyper-traders moving shares in the blink of an eye?  Now people around the world aren’t on the same clock anymore.  The information isn’t getting spread around evenly.  In this day in age, that’s a HUGE deal.  Now, how many of you are on your mobile phones all day long?  If they hit the data farms, those phones are going to be much less useful.  If the Chinese can really do this, that weapon is designed to start the apocalypse.  If someone crashed all of our satellites and cloud storage, there would be a complete network collapse.  There would be a huge stock market crash, followed by a huge food shortage, followed by rampant riots in the street and a total breakdown in society.  I swear to god, I am not exaggerating here.  How many of you have kids?  What would you do for the last loaf of bread if your kid was starving and you didn’t think there was another bread truck coming?  Take this weapon seriously.  And consider stocking up on bread, water, and Seinfeld DVD’s.”

Well, that worked.  David thought Henry summed that up pretty nicely.  Nods of agreement from around the room.  Looks of terror.  Nice.

Bill said, “But hold on here.  First, that still doesn’t solve the nuclear deterrence factor.”

“It will make the navigation for the missiles much less accurate,” said one of the Air Force officers.

David said, “Actually...to be honest, especially if they disrupted communication enough, I just don’t think we would go through with it.”

“Go through with what?”

David said, “Sorry.  I mean, I just don’t think that we would really retaliate with nukes.  Think about it.  If they shut down all of our satellites like that, our government decision makers would be deaf, dumb, and blind.  If they started a military attack and let’s say they jammed long-range radio communication...I’m not saying that we wouldn’t nuke China if we had a clear picture of what was going on, but it takes a very long time for the U.S. government to gather enough political support to attack a foreign country when we do have clear evidence.  If all of a sudden, we just didn’t have any communications with our armed forces.  If no one had electricity or phone lines.  Do you see our politicians having the confidence in the information they were getting to launch a World War Three-style nuclear retaliation on China?  I mean, until 24 hours ago, I would have told you that you were crazy to suggest any of this.  I would have said, ‘Hell no, China won’t attack us.’  Think of all the trade they’d be giving up.  It would be economic suicide.  No one would believe it.  Our technology has enabled hyper-war.  But the decision making process hasn’t gotten any faster.  And this isn’t 1983.  Our leaders haven’t been conditioned to expect a nuclear war the way they were back in the eighties.  If an attack happened then, we all knew who it was.  The Soviets.  The Evil Empire.  But China isn’t really seen as an enemy today.  Their cyber war against us is mostly covert.  Their military buildup is second-page news.  People get cheap iPhones and low prices at Walmart, and trade with China is at an all-time high.  I just don’t see a nuclear response as viable if the picture isn’t clear.”

No one said anything for a moment.  People absorbed David’s thoughts.  Some were no doubt struggling with the question of whether nuclear deterrence was good or bad.

Brooke cleared her throat and said, “Well, this turned out to be scary.  But I still have a question about the premise of this war plan.  Let’s suppose that our politicians have neither the information nor the balls to launch a nuclear response back at an attacking superpower.  I will try not to insert my hatred of all liberal politics here.  Now, I am more disturbed by the threat of a cyber attack on our satellites than anyone.  I mean, I rely on these things every day to do my job in Ft. Meade.  But I fail to see why we still have reason to believe that this is a real threat.  Why is a cyber-attack on these satellites a game-changer?  Can one of you Air Force guys please help me out here?  Aren’t there already missiles that can shoot down satellites?  Henry, couldn’t they just blow up data centers?  Why is this ARES such a big deal?  What is new about this weapon compared to what they could have already done?”

David said, “Well they can now control more satellites in a shorter time.”

Brooke shook her head and said, “No.  That’s not enough of a leap for me.  My point is, they could have done the same things through different means.  What am I missing here?”

Most of the classroom looked at Lena but she didn’t say anything back.  Instead, the answer came from Henry.

He said to Lena,  “Ohhhh.  I see what’s going on here.”

Everyone stared, waiting for him to continue.

Henry said, “There is a countdown.  Isn’t there?”

Eyes shot back to Lena.  She nodded.

David then said.  “That was it, wasn’t it?  That’s how you knew that they are really going to attack.  That’s what this new intelligence was that your dead agent uncovered.”

“Part of it.  Yes.” she said.

Some of them put it together and some didn’t.  Someone whistled.  A few swore.  Up until now, David still had a skepticism built up inside of him.  He hadn’t truly believed that China was going to attack the United States.  Sure, there may have been intelligence that they were thinking about it.  But in David’s heart, he believed that somehow this was all going to go away.  Cooler heads would prevail.  The Red Cell would just become some crazy what-if scenario planning session.  David had harbored these thoughts since Tom had first told him about the project.  But the evidence was now falling into place.  The reasons for secrecy.  The signs of war.  Suddenly this all became very real.

He gazed outside, thinking about the implications of a war of this scale.  He could see tropical thunderheads on the horizon, each with a white mist streaming down to the distant ocean.  Storms approaching.  Fitting.

Someone said, “What’s the countdown matter for?”

David sighed and said.  “It means that they’re going to follow through.  The satellite-killer is a first-strike weapon.   And the countdown means they’ve already pulled the trigger.  It’s true that they probably have missiles that could do this.  They’ve had them for years, actually.  But if there is a countdown, then that means that they have a plan in motion.  And everything that we’re doing here matters a whole lot more.”

“Well, when does the countdown stop?” Henry asked.

Everyone in the room locked their eyes on Lena.  She looked as if she wasn’t sure whether she should answer.

Finally, she said, “To be honest, we don’t know.”

*****

David woke up to the green-glowing beep of his watch alarm.  He had collapsed on his bed at 5:30 p.m., intending on just to shut his eyes for thirty minutes.  But the fatigue of his jet lag and the all-day sessions had drained him.  While just about everyone else had filed into the cafeteria as soon as the afternoon team meetings ended, David took a nap.  It was now 7:15 p.m. and David would have to hightail it to make it to dinner before they closed.

He threw on a tee shirt, khaki shorts, and a pair of reebok sneakers, and then rushed over to the cafeteria.  He walked into the meal hall to the clatter of metal dishware being cleaned in the back.   Bill was the lone diner.  David walked through the buffet line, scooping heaping piles of mashed potatoes, green beans, and what looked like a pot roast onto his plate.  He grabbed a few bottles of water and a banana and walked over to the table where the other man sat.

“Mind if I join you?” David asked.

“Sure, sure.” Bill was in mid chew.  He took a gulp from his cup and said,  “Helluva day, huh?”

Bill ran his hair through his thick, fluorescent white hair.  He dressed in a collared shirt that was tucked in to a pair of light blue jeans.  Black sneakers completed the outfit.   David thought that he looked like he could have been a grandpa.

“Where are you from again, Bill?” David asked.

“West Texas.  But I’ve lived in Nevada for the past few years.  And honestly, before that I was Air Force so I’ve lived all over.  Yourself?”

“Virginia.  Right outside D.C.  I’m a Navy BRAT myself.”

“I’ve been there.  Nice area.  Lousy traffic.”

David nodded as he finished a bite of the overcooked roast.  “Yup.”

A few moments passed.  Small talk didn’t seem to be either man’s forte.

Finally Bill spoke, “This all just makes you re-evaluate your life, you know?”

David spoke through chews.  “Yeah.  The end of the world will do that.”

“I’m not saying I regret anything.  My wife always says to our kids that regrets ain’t worth fussing over.  Because there’s better things ahead than behind.”

“Sounds like a smart lady.  Wonder how she ended up with you?”

“Hah.  Yeah.” Bill looked sad at her mention.

David said, “I hope my family is alright.  My dad, sister, and brother are all active duty Navy.  I would imagine their jobs just got a lot more dangerous.”

Bill raised his eyebrows and took a drink.  “I’m sure they’ll be okay.  With any luck, we’ll come out of this all right.  I remember the Bay of Pigs when I was a little kid.  It seemed like the world was about to end then, too.  We used to practice getting under our desks at school in case the Russians nuked us.  Imagine that.  And that all blew over.  Hopefully this will too.”  While his words were meant to comfort, he didn’t sound like he believed them.

“My mother passed a year ago.  Heart failure.”  David didn’t know why he said it.  It just came out.

“I’m so sorry,” said Bill.

“Thanks.  It hit us pretty hard.  So after my mother died, my father, sister, and brother were all home together for a short while.  It was the first time I’d seen Chase in two years.  Crazy.  He was always deploying with the SEALS.”

“He was a SEAL?  Impressive.”

“Oh yes.  Everyone’s always impressed with Chase.  So he came home, took a month off from his work, and we got to hang out a bunch.  Now, I’ve never been the athlete that my brother or sister were. But the day after Chase flew in for the funeral, he asked me to go on a run with him.  He goes on these super-long runs. We drove down to D.C. and ran around the Theodore Roosevelt Island and finished on the Washington & Old Dominion Trail.  Very scenic.  Very long run.  I hadn’t run more than two miles since I graduated Annapolis.  My mother used to love taking long walks around that area.  She always said that her kids got her athletic genes.  Heart disease.  Unbelievable.  It’s a cruel, ironic world if you ask me.  Anyway, my brother insists that I go with him on this run.  We go for five miles around that lake and I swear that something changed inside me.  It was therapeutic.  It sounds funny, but that run was like a way to say goodbye to my mother.  Maybe she was with us?  Well, I’ve been running almost every day since.  I actually did my first triathlon two months ago and I’m training for another.  I got a taste of a runner’s high that day and I keep going back for more.”

“That’s sounds like a healthy hobby.  What’s the problem?”

“You talked about all this China stuff making you re-evaluate your life.  My mom’s death did it for me.  Part of my conclusion was that I needed to reconnect with my family more.  I missed my brother and sister.  I have been doing pretty well keeping up with them through email more.  I have even flown down to Jacksonville to hang out with my sister.  My dad is almost impossible to get time with.  He might as well be the President the way the Navy treats him.  Still, with all of this talk of war, I’m just worried.  I don’t want to lose any of them…”  David’s voice trailed off.

Bill put his hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye.  “David, better things are coming.  I’ll pray for it.  You mark it down, and I’ll pray for it.”

The entrance door opened and Natesh walked in.  He waved at the two men and received polite acknowledgments in return.  A moment later he plopped down like a sandbag across the table.

“You look pretty beat young man.” said Bill.

Natesh raised his eyebrows and said, “My friend...you cannot imagine.  I’m exhausted.  This project is quite intense.”  He drank his plastic cup of ice water until the cubes slid down to his mouth.  He bit an ice cube and began crunching it in his teeth.

Bill asked, “What did you all think of the last part of the meeting today?”

Natesh said, “You mean Lena’s revelation?  It was compelling.  What did you think?”

David said, “I was pretty shocked.  I work on classified technology for a living.  I’ve seen a lot of real cutting-edge stuff.  If they have ARES, that’s bad news.”

“It sure is.” Bill agreed.  “There’s that silver bullet we were talking about all day.”

David nodded.  “Imagine our ships, our troops in combat, and our aircraft without any navigation or smart weapons.  A great deal of our communication...arguably the most important parts, would be wiped out.  We would be back to Vietnam era technology.  And the thing is, our military is pretty reliant on the tech that we have.  I mean, when was the last time you wrote a letter?  Has your cursive handwriting gotten any worse since you were in grade school?  No need to practice with email, right?  The same will go for war fighting.  No need to practice using a compass all the time if you have got GPS.  And if the other guys are practicing, advantage them.”

Natesh said, “Or worse, if the Chinese retain their technology.  I believe they just launched their own GPS system.  I’m sure it would be quite possible to crash our satellites and leave theirs intact.”

David looked at each of them.  That little voice in his head was talking to him again.  Something just didn’t sit right about all of this.  Natesh and Bill both seemed like good trustworthy men.  He wanted to ask them if they believed everything that they had heard over the past 24 hours.  Instead, he just kept silent.

Natesh said, “Lena and the Major will be taking us through some more of the Chinese military capabilities and limitations this evening.  We should probably leave in another few minutes.”

“Sure thing.  Don’t want to be late for the CIA lady.” said David.

Bill said, “So…Lena said we could go to her if we had any issues right?”

Natesh said, “Yes, that’s what she said.  She said she can get us anything that we need while we are here.”

Bill’s voice sounded pained like he was trying to figure out what to do. “That’s my issue.  Look, I just don’t know if I can afford to be here.”

David was pretty sure that he was referring to his wife’s illness.

Natesh said, “I’m...I’m not really sure what to say.  I know this is probably obvious the way you’re feeling.  But, I assume you’re worried about your wife?”

Bill let out a deep sigh.  “Yep.  I realize this is important.  But I got a lot of important things on my plate right about now.  Before the world goes to hell, I would rather spend that time with my wife.  No offenses to you fine gentlemen.”

David ate the last bite of his green beans and wiped his mouth with a napkin.  He thought about the position Bill was in and where they were in the world.  The guy needed to get off this island.

Natesh said, “Why don’t you go talk to Lena tonight after our end of day meeting is over?  Let her know what you’re thinking so she can hear you out.  She seems like a reasonable woman.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she won’t let you just fly back home.  Perhaps you can just sign a paper.  We’re volunteers, right?”

David thought about his own kidnapping less than 48 hours ago and wondered if they were volunteers or not.  If Bill’s wife was dying, he had to get home.

David said, “I agree.  Go talk to her.”

A flash of lightning out the cafeteria window caught their attention.  A few moments later, they heard the distant rumble of thunder fill the sky.

Bill said, “Maybe I will.  Maybe she can help me out.  Yeah, you’re probably right.”  He smiled.

*****

It was after 11 p.m. when Lena and Bill walked back from the classroom to the Communications building.  The group meeting educating everyone on Chinese military and defense capabilities went for almost three hours.  When the meeting ended, people were happy to get back to the “hotel” as the consultants were all calling it now.  Raindrops began to fall as the outskirts of a thundercloud grazed the island.

Bill had approached Lena immediately after the night meeting in the classroom.  She was very understanding and suggested they go sit down and discuss it further. Bill had a good feeling.  Women were just better that way.  They understood the importance of family.  Maybe that was because they bore children.  Bill remembered one of his macho-man, hard-ass commanding officers back in the Air Force that had denied his leave chit during Desert Shield.  That forced Bill to miss the birth of his second child.  That guy was a jerk.  But Lena seemed much more understanding.

They reached the Comms Building and Lena went to type her code into the digital keypad next to the door.  She looked over at Bill and then typed with her body positioned so that he couldn't see.  The keypad beeped and there was a click as the door unlocked.  She opened it and they went into a room that reminded Bill of an airport control tower.  Rain started coming down in sheets just as they entered.  Bill wiped away the rainwater from his hair as he looked over the room.  There were several TV screens, all of them off.  Three black swivel chairs were placed in front of computer monitors.  There was a second door on the far wall that looked like it connected to the rest of the structure.  It too had a digital keypad.

Lena motioned for Bill to sit.   He took one of the swivel chairs and looked around the room.  He wondered where she slept.  Must have been behind that door.  The computers looked new.  When did they build this place?  The technology to open and close these doors was pretty sophisticated.  Bill saw Lena sit down across from him and cross her legs.  She looked relaxed.  She really was a nice woman.

Bill told her what was on his mind.  He told her about his wife’s cancer and her history of it.  They had a few neighbors that could look after her, but it wasn’t the physical stuff that he was worried about.  Bill poured his heart out before he even knew that he had.  All of this talk of war and strategy and China had distracted him plenty good, but the thoughts of his wife came tumbling back and they were wrapped in emotion.  He hoped the display would be enough.

Lena listened.  She was an intense woman, Bill noticed.  The kind that leaned forward in her chair at all times.  Like she had to be ready to pounce.  It was awful funny seeing a woman sit like that.  Reminded him of a fighter pilot or something.

When he was done talking he felt embarrassed but was glad to get it off his chest.  Bill let Lena know that he felt an obligation to help out, but had a bigger responsibility back home.  Lena seemed like she got it.  Family had to come first.  She said all the right things when he was done, smiling.  She understood.  He saw that in her eyes.  Now she would tell him what he needed to hear.

Bill said, “I mean...Lena, I understand how important this all is.  But there must be some other person that can take my place.  Maybe someone else at my office.  My director will be able to help with that just like he helped get me here.  I presume you already know him, since he sent me here.”

She was sitting close to him, leaning in and following every word like she really cared.

Lena said, “Bill, of course.  Whatever you need.  When would you like to leave?”

He let out a sigh of relief.  “Oh thank you.  Thank you so much.  I hate to be a burden.  I’d be happy to participate.  Maybe I could help out remotely?  Through the Internet?  I just…I need to get back to her.”

Lena nodded and gave the warmest of smiles.  She reached over and squeezed his shoulder.  “Anything at all.  We can arrange for a plane first thing in the morning if you like?”

“Oh thank you so much.  I…it’s just.  I feel bad even asking.  But I don’t want to waste any time.  And I don’t know how much we’ve got…me and my wife.”

“Actually, Bill, it’s funny you phrase it like that.”

Bill frowned.  “Come again?  I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

Lena’s demeanor changed.  Her smile was a little less warm.  Her eyes a bit less glowing.  “How much time have we got, Bill?”

Bill shook his head.  “What do you mean?”

“Bill, do you have something else you would like to share with me?”

Bill paused.  He looked at her and frowned.

“Bill.  Come now.  Remember, I worked with your boss to get you here.  I already have a good idea of what everyone knows.  But we brought you here to confirm.  I expected to hear you speak up today when they brought up the countdown.”

Bill let out a deep breath and looked at the floor.  How could she know this?  His manager didn’t even know everything.

He said, “I didn’t want to bring it up.  I wasn’t sure if it was exactly what we were talking about.”

“You found a countdown embedded in satellites that you use to connect to Air Force drones halfway around the world.  A countdown that was put there by a foreign entity.  And you weren’t sure if it was relevant?  I’m sure that you’ve been quite absorbed by what’s going on at home.  But please...what do you know about the countdown?”

Bill looked at her.  If he had told everyone what he knew, he never would get out of there.  It was a hell of a selfish thing to do, keeping something like that to himself.  But he had to see his wife.  If the world really was coming to an end that soon...

“Seven months.” He finally said.

She didn’t blink.  She even looked like she already knew.  Which was impossible.  His manager, the one that had sent him there, only knew that they had found a sequenced countdown.  But as far as he knew, Bill was still working out the code.

“We found a code in one of our satellites a week ago.  One that we use to relay GPS data to Predator drones.  Then we checked a few other satellites.  It was in all of them.  Whoever put it there knew what they were doing.  But we thought it was just a computer virus.  Until today I had no idea what it could be for.  Honest.  You’re right though.  We were pretty sure that some foreign agency did it.  We knew it was a countdown. My boss was gone when I figured out the timing.  It was coded, but I ran it through a decryption program.  Then I did the math.  Seven months.  If this is the same cyber weapon that David was talking about, that’s how long we have until this war starts.  And that’s why I have to get back to my wife.  I need to be with her, Lena.”

Lena said, “What did the others here say about this when you told them?”

“Who?  What others?”

“The other consultants here on the island.  What did they say about this?”

Bill was embarrassed.  He said quietly, “I haven’t told anyone else.  Hell, my boss doesn’t even know all of that.  I was going to let him know about the timing next week.  He was out for a few days when I figured it out.  Then Burns, my director, contacted me about this project.  But he didn’t know yet either.  Come to think of it, how did you-”

Bill never saw it coming.

Lena twisted her torso around, drove her arm forward, and snapped the bottom of her palm into Bill’s solar plexus with an impossibly strong force.  A shot of agonizing pain and a rapid loss of the ability to breathe left Bill crumpled on the floor.

Bill tried to gasp for breath but his stomach muscles were cramped too badly.  He vaguely understood that Lena was twisting his large body so that he lay flat on his back, the concrete floor cold on his neck.

He started to wheeze and she slammed her open palm into his nose, the back of his head beating against the hard stone.  Then came a momentary flash of black and white stars and a ringing in his ears.  Bill’s vision was a blur of dark computer screens and concrete flooring.   The rain poured down loud on the roof.  A clap of thunder sounded off outside.

Lena was rolling him and tying his hands and feet with something tight.  He just needed a minute to rest.  She had to stop.  His head hurt so much.  Bill didn’t understand what was going on.  Lena seemed like a sweet girl.  She had smiled and listened to his story.  He didn’t understand why she hit him.  Bill felt a trickle of blood rolling down the back of his head, where it hit the concrete.  The cut must have been bad.

Lena stood over him and hissed, “Are you familiar with the blood choke?  Your Marines call it that.  I just adore the label.”

She pressed one foot into his chest, eyeing him like he was a prize deer she had just bagged.  Her eyes were filled with a terrifying eagerness.

Bill lay on the ground, weak and not comprehending what was happening.  He tried to get up but his head hurt, and Lena easily pressed his chest back down to the floor.  His energy was gone and his head ached.  Her hands crept over his neck.  Bill instinctively tried to protect himself, but his hands and legs were tied up.

He watched as she crouched down over him, moving with the grace of a true predator.  Her face got close enough that he could feel her breath.  He couldn’t understand what was happening.  The look in her eyes terrified him.  Why was she doing this?

Lena whispered, “It’s alright.  Just relax.  Shhhh.  Here’s what will happen.  I’m going to squeeze your carotid arteries and stop the blood flow to your brain.  It’s an extremely efficient technique.  Much faster than cutting off the oxygen supply via your wind pipe.  You’ll then go unconscious, and I’ll have to decide what to do with you.  I may kill you.  I am not quite ready to make that call.  I need to think on it.  But with any luck, you’ll wake up good as new under close supervision.  Now, it’s time to sleep.”

His eyes bulged with fear.  Her fingers tightened around his neck.  She squeezed hard enough that it hurt.  He felt the blood pressure around his face and neck begin to rise.  He squirmed with all of his might, but she was incredibly strong and had too much leverage.  Bill’s vision grew dark.  It felt like she was choking him but he could still breath…he could still fight…he could…

Lena rose and walked to the phone, lifting the handle to her ear.  She switched to a sharp-tongued Mandarin.

She said, “Contact the destroyer Lanzhou.  Tell them that they must send their alert helicopter.  It must land on the north end of the runway at 1:00 a.m.  Be prepared to take a passenger in restraints.  Call me if there are any problems.  Once he is on the ship, await my further instruction.  Keep him under observation.  Do not let him speak with anyone.”

She hung up the phone and looked at Bill’s limp body on the floor.  She needed Bill gone from this side of the island.  This “voluntary” extraction of information could only go on for so long.  Sooner or later they would realize that it was a charade.  Some may already suspect.  She hoped Bill’s imminent departure wouldn’t be the beginning of the unraveling.

*****

14 years earlier - Washington, D.C.

Lena sat in her car and looked at her watch.  He should be here any minute.  She tried not to be nervous.  There could be many reasons why he would make contact with her.  She was almost finished with her undergraduate degree.  And she had performed a few small tasks around the D.C. area.  Mostly surveillance or eavesdropping.  Things she had learned from her initial training on how to be an intelligence operative.  By all accounts she had performed admirably.  Could this be to give her praise?  Perhaps this meeting was a simple check-up?  Or to discuss future duties?  Still, she knew this man’s reputation.  Mr. Cheng Jinshan was a very important businessman.  And a legendary puppeteer for his network of spies.  This visit would not be for a trivial reason.

She parked at the corner of 36th Street and Prospect.  At exactly noon she got out of her car, and walked to The Tombs, a swanky Georgetown bar across the street.  The inside was dark and empty.  It was a weekday and most people wouldn’t arrive until happy hour.  A bartender was at the far side of the room, wiping down the glossy tables.

Lena scanned to see if the Jinshan was already here.

The bartender spotted her.  “You ready to order?” he asked.

“No.  Just—”

“Two Dewars on the rocks.  We’ll sit by the fireplace.”  The voice from behind froze her.  She was sixteen when she had last heard that voice.  The day that he had recruited her.  She tried not to think about that day of tears.

She turned and held out her hand.  “Hello, sir.”

“Hello, Lena.”  He studied her for a moment, and then walked on.

They sat at a long wooden table tucked beside a large brick fireplace.  The flames blazed and crackled.  A dozen crew paddles formed a semicircle on the stones above the fire.

The bartender brought two heavy glasses of light brown liquid and went back to cleaning.

“Do you drink?” the man asked, taking a sip.

She gave a weak smile.  “A little.  Not like the others at my school.  I have more important things to do with my time.”  She felt like this was half evaluation, half job interview.

“I see.” was his only reply.

They sat for a few moments.  The silence made her uncomfortable.  She tried to think of something appropriate to say but nothing came to mind.

“You’ve done well here.” he said finally.

“Thank you.”

“Your grades and athletic performance have been exemplary.  Your linguistic skills are superb.  Also...your extracurricular performance has been noted.”  She was pretty sure that he didn’t mean school clubs.  Her small contributions to the spy trade were likely what he was referring to.

“Thank you.”  She nodded, pursing her lips.  She was humble.  Complements made her uneasy.

“Still...we’ve watched you closely Lena.  You’ve had specific guidelines on how you can interact with others here.”

The tone of his voice told her that he was going somewhere with this.  Her heart stopped.  She had been careful.  They couldn’t possibly know about him.  It had only been a few months.  Maybe she had slipped up on something else.  Filed a report wrong, possibly?  But the pit forming in her stomach told her otherwise.  She took a sip from her glass.

“And we’ve observed a few...deviations.”

Her face reddened.  They knew.  She had hoped to God that it wasn’t about this.  She hadn’t meant for it to happen.  He was on the track team with her.  They had both been at a hotel and had spent some time alone.  He was a quiet boy.  She liked the attention.  She knew that it was against the rules.  Just like she did years ago.  When she was sixteen.

“You’ve taken a lover.”

She looked at her feet.  The taste of whiskey heated her throat.

“It’s alright, Lena.  I’m not judging you.  You are human, after all.  But still, we need to know that you will be able to abide by our strict guidelines in any environment.  This program isn’t for everyone.  We need deeply committed personnel.  You are still in training here.  It may not seem like it always.  But you are.  And you need to keep a minimalist lifestyle.  That means no relationships of this nature.  You must sacrifice, lest you grow sluggish.  Or worse, compromised.  We don’t want relationships to inhibit future placement.  And we don’t want to ever put you in a position where you could slip and say something to the wrong person.”

She looked at him.  For a split second, she thought of denying it.  She could deceive him.  Say that it was nothing.  But with Jinshan, she could not risk it.  Never lie to Jinshan.  That’s what she had been told by the others.  She must take responsibility and hope for the best.  “Of course, sir.  Of course.  It’s my fault.  I just—I’m sorry.  I’ll break it off at once.  I will do better.  I’m sorry.  Please—”

“No, no.  Lena, this isn’t about a relationship.”  He took a deep gulp from his glass and laid it on the table, ice clinking the edges.  “It’s about trust.”

“You can trust me, sir.”  She saw all of her hard work slipping away.  It was a terrifying prospect.  She had spent years training to be here.  She didn’t want to go back to what could await her if she failed out of the program.

“We have invested a lot of time and energy into you.  As I have stated, your performance has been very high quality.  I personally have followed your development, and I see great things in store for you Lena.  But I have to know that I can trust you.”

“Yes, yes.  Of course.  I am so sorry.  Please.”  She shook her head.  She hoped that she had not jeopardized her career.

“Lena I am here for two reasons.  First, to tell you that I have selected you for a special program.  I want you to follow a particular career track.  One that many don’t even know exists.  If you do this, you will be working on our most covert and most important assignments.  You’ll receive a lot more specialized training.  And your contribution to your country will be of the utmost importance.  In future assignments, you’ll report directly to me.”

Her heart skipped a beat.  He was going to let her continue.  She could keep moving up.  She would retain her honor.   Lena nodded vigorously, trying to hold back her emotions.

“The second thing I am here to tell you is that I need you to perform one final act in this segment of your training.  I need you to demonstrate your loyalty...your dedication...and your ability to put the mission above all else in your life.  If you can do this, I will know that I can trust you.  And we can move forward as I described.”

“Of course.  Anything.  Please just let me know—”

He leaned forward and whispered, “You will kill your boyfriend.”

Her world stopped.

He spoke but she barely heard him.  “Please understand; this is not because I think you told him anything about your role with us.  I believe you when you say that you have kept your secrets.  No Lena, this order is a way for me to know that you are capable of this kind of thing.  If I select you for this special assignment, your future career will require a level of emotional detachment from your professional endeavors that few possess.  Some could refer to this quality as heartless, ruthless, cold, calculating.  Call it what you will.  Lena, you must be all of these things if you are to be a weapon.  I don’t need you to be just a listener.  I have many listeners.  I need you to be, at times, an assassin.  You have been trained in many techniques.  Now you will put them into action.  Show me that you can effectively perform this task.”

She felt sick.  The look on his face—it was as if he felt nothing in asking her this.   What kind of man could ask this?  She threw out the thought as quickly as it entered her mind.  He had given her a second chance in life.  Her family was proud of her for serving her country.  She would never see them again, but she had retained her honor.

He continued, “Make it look like an accident.  This will ensure that you aren’t questioned.  Play the part of the devastated girlfriend.  You will graduate from college in a few months.  Begin to cut ties with any other friends you had while here.  We’ll set you up with your next job.  I have big things planned Lena.  And I want you to be a part of those plans.”

She thought of last night.  Of skin on skin.  Of the way he had made her feel.  But it wasn’t who she was.  She must remember that.  Love and lust were fleeting.  Duty and honor were immortal.  She breathed in deeply, and then let out a slow release of air through her nose.  Lena forced all of her emotion out of her body.

She looked back at the man sitting across from her.  His single-breasted suit was exquisite.  Gold cufflinks and an expensive watch.  He spent his time in boardrooms and private jets.  His connection to this part of her nation’s government was a mystery to her.  But she knew of his loyalty to those he took under his wing...and of his brutal reputation to those that crossed him.  This wasn’t a choice.  It was a hurdle.  Like so many she had jumped.

Lena looked to ensure the barkeep was out of earshot and whispered, “Of course, sir.  I will do this without hesitation.  I will prove to you my loyalty to my country.  My loyalty to China.”

*****

Present Day

David’s internal clock was all messed up.  His nap earlier hadn’t helped.  He tried to sleep but couldn’t.  He checked his watch.  It was almost 1 a.m.  A cool sea breeze drifted in from the screened window.  A bright half-moon lit up the sliver of sea that was visible from his room.  The thunderstorms had passed.  He had too much energy to sleep.  Screw it.  He was going to take a walk outside.

He threw on his clothes and sneakers and headed down the concrete stairs and outside the barracks.  Outside he could hear loud bird songs coming from the jungle-covered mountain.   A few large moths fluttered around the light positioned above the barracks door.

David walked along the sandy path towards the beach.  He had nothing better to do.  Why not?  The runway was in between the shore and where he was now.  It was a beautiful night.  He loved the way the air looked and felt so clear after a storm came through.  It was like they sucked up all of the haze and humidity and left nothing but pure crisp air behind.

David walked past the communications building and heard a rumble in the distance.  At first he thought it was the buzzing of an air conditioning unit or some generator attached to one of the buildings.  Then the rumble grew into a reverberation.  He recognized that noise.  The reverberations got louder and changed pitch.  A helicopter.  And it was getting closer by the sound of it.  Why would it be coming here in the middle of the night?  An uneasy feeling grew inside him.

David stood on the gravel path and tried to look into the black sky above the ocean for any sign of an aircraft.  Nothing.  It was like looking into a black hole.

A set of dim blue lights flickered on at the end of the runway.  He could just barely see them, but it was enough for him to notice.  Had someone turned them on for the helicopter to land?  David heard a door open directly behind him, coming from the communications building.

He hid.  He didn’t know why he was doing it, but every instinct in his body pushed him behind a group of tall palms and bushes.  He then spread himself flat on the ground and held his breath.  The moon was out, but he was in the shadows.

The sounds of the rotors grew and David finally spotted the helo as it passed in front of the moon.  Its lights were off.  Usually helicopters only did that when they didn't want to be seen.  It was probably military.

David didn’t even hear her.  Lena walked right by him, only a few feet in front of his hiding spot.  She was alone, wearing some sort of helmet with a clear visor over her face, and walking straight toward the runway.  A moment later the helicopter touched down, blowing sand and small shells into the air with its rotor wash.  Someone from the helicopter ran out to Lena and then followed her back into the communications building.

They emerged only seconds later, carrying a large man slouched over their shoulders.  It looked like the man was completely limp; either unconscious or worse.  If David could have pressed himself completely underground, he would have.  Something felt terribly off about this.  It was hard for David to see clearly in the darkness.  The sound of the rotors made it impossible to hear much more.  He held his breath and lay completely still as they passed the bush.

Then he saw the limp man’s face in the moonlight.  It was Bill.  They were dragging Bill to the helicopter.  Holy shit.  Was he alive?

Lena and the man from the helicopter slowly carried Bill under the spinning rotors and into the cabin of the aircraft.  She then left the helicopter and walked back up toward David.  His blood chilled.  It looked like she was heading right toward his bush.  Each step took her closer and closer.  The sound of the helicopter was still loud.  If he yelled, no one in the building would hear him.

Just as David thought that Lena had spotted him, she stopped and turned toward the runway.  The helicopter lifted off and dipped its nose, accelerating and climbing into the night.  David could just barely make out the outline of the aircraft, but he was pretty sure that it wasn’t a Seahawk, like the one his sister in the Navy flew.  This helicopter looked different.  It was smaller and had an enclosed tail.  Like the Maryland state police helicopters that he saw around D.C.  Or maybe a Coast Guard helicopter.  Could that be a Coast Guard helo?  No way.  Not this far from home.  So who was it?  And what the hell was Lena doing dropping off an unconscious Bill into the back seat?

With the helicopter out of sight, Lena walked back towards the communications building.  David couldn’t see the entrance from his hiding spot, but he lay in the bushes for a full ten minutes to be sure she was inside.

What did this mean?  What was going on?  Had Bill gone to her and tried to get off the island?  Was this their way of moving him?  Did they kill him?  David was less sure of who he could trust now than at any time since his kidnapping.  He definitely could not trust Lena.  Was this Red Cell even legit?  Should he try to get off the island or get word out somehow?  He had no idea how he could do that.

David finally got up and quickly dusted some of the sand off his clothes.  He walked as quietly as he could back to the hotel, looking at the communications building as he went by to make sure Lena didn’t pop out.  There were no windows that he could see through, but there were glass slits at the top of the building that were emanating light.

He arrived at the barracks building and opened the door as slow as possible.  He did not want to be seen.

He heard the crunch of someone walking on the gravel coming from the path behind him.

David’s heart raced as he slipped inside and closed the door.  He didn’t know if he had been spotted, but it sounded like someone was following him.  He tiptoed up the stairs onto the second floor. Coverless halogen bulbs lit the hallway.  The brightness ruined his night vision and forced him to squint.  He fumbled for his room key as he got to his door.

Footsteps echoed from the concrete stairway David had just walked up.  He was almost inside.

“Hello David.” Lena said.  She walked towards him.

There was nothing he could do about the look on his face.  That look of instant shock and fear at seeing the one person he hoped not to.  He then gave the best impersonation of nonchalance he could muster.

“Hello.  What are you doing up here?”  He didn’t know what else to say.

She was all business.  “I would ask you the same thing, David.  Why are you up so late outside your room?  Were you outside?”

“Um, yes.  I thought I heard…a helicopter.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah.  It woke me up.  I just went to the door on the ground floor to see if I could see it.”

“And did you?  See it?”

“Nah.  It was too dark.  Do you know what it was doing here?  The helicopter?”  His fingers hovered around the metal door handle.

“Did you go outside?”

“No.  I just looked from the door.  Why?  Is that Okay?  I don’t want to break any rules.”

She cocked her head and said, “The helicopter was taking Bill back to his family.  His wife is sick.  He wanted to get home and see her.  I helped him to do so.  The helicopter was the best way.  I can’t say more.  Security.  You understand.”

“Oh, sure.  Sorry.  Well that’s great that you were able to help him.  I’m feeling pretty tired.  I should get to bed.  This jet lag is playing havoc with my circadian rhythm.  Thanks Lena.  See you tomorrow.”

Lena took a step toward him and he instinctively cringed.

She said, “David, it looks like your outfit may have gotten a bit sandy.  Better brush off.”  She swiped particles of dark island sand off his shirt.  He was covered in a thin layer of the stuff from lying on the ground outside.  Her face was inches away, and her emotionless eyes peered into his own.  He felt his palms sweating.  In another place and time, it may have been a come-on.  But here, it was chilling.

He whispered, “Thanks.  Goodnight.”

With that, he turned back inside his room and shut the door behind him.  He stood on the other side of the door sweating, and listening for her footsteps.  He heard nothing.  Was she just standing there too, listening for his movements?  If he stayed still that would be suspicious.  He winced as he locked his door, about thirty seconds later than seemed appropriate.  A deadbolt never sounded so loud.  He then turned out his lights and got into bed.  He could hear noises coming from outside for the next few minutes.  It sounded like Lena was going into Bill’s room and rummaging around.  Probably packing up his things.  A few minutes after that, there was silence.

His thoughts drifted back to his family.  Two days earlier David had been wrecked with fear, captive in a car trunk, his future safety unknown.  His prison had expanded to an island, but David once again was a captive.

There was no way he would get any real sleep tonight.  He wasn’t sure what tomorrow would bring.  Were they prisoners here?  Who could he trust?  Had Lena killed Bill?  Even if he wasn’t dead, was Bill removed unconscious just for asking to leave?  Was secrecy so important that the CIA would imprison them all?  A worse thought: was Lena even CIA?  He never saw the face of the man that helped her carry Bill.  He was concealed by his helmet and mask.  But that helicopter didn’t look like any he had seen in the Navy.  Was she even American?   David was only certain about one thing: He must figure out how to get off this island alive.

**********

A Note from Andrew Watts:

I hope that you have enjoyed The War Planners.  If you would like to find out what happens with David, Lena, and “the War”, please sign up for the reader list at andrewwattsauthor.com.  No spam, just an email when the sequel launches.

And if you have time, I would greatly appreciate a review on Amazon!

About the Author:

Andrew Watts spent ten years as an officer and helicopter pilot in the U.S. Navy.  During that time, he flew missions chasing drug smugglers in the Eastern Pacific and disrupting pirate attacks off the coast of Africa.  He was a flight instructor in Pensacola, Florida, and helped run ship and flight operations on a nuclear aircraft carrier while deployed to the Middle East.

Today, he lives with his family in Ohio.

WEBSITE - FACEBOOK

Acknowledgements:

To Jimmy Buffett: Thanks for helping me to meet my wife.

To Becca North: Thanks for your push to get me started.

To my wife & family:  Thanks for everything.

Table of Contents

- Chapter 1
- CHAPTER 2
- CHAPTER 3
- CHAPTER 4